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CAPTAIN RIFF -COMIC Yellow Brick Road Mot 


Genesis 

Band of the Month 




EDITORIAL: Fleetway House, 
Farringdon Street, London 
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Editor: JOHN WELLS 

Deputy Editor: BOB CLEGG 


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TALK OF THE SCENE: bar room chatter of the music business 


2/3 

ROXY MUSIC: coping without Eno 4-/ 5 

NEWS: . 6/7 

DAVID BOWIE: TV special filmed at the Marquee 8/ 9 

KEITH RICHARD; the meanest rhythm guitarist 10 

RINGO STARR: doing a variety of things 11 

CLANCY: a day in the life of a working band ... 12/13 

REFUGEE: nice to see these people get together. 14 


CAPTAIN RIFF: the comic adventures of a rock n' roll hero. . 15 


ELTON JOHN: bespectacled leader of the yellow brick road mob 


16 

BERNIE TAUPIN: wordsmith to Elton and the gang 17 

DAVEY JOHNSTONE: formerly shaggis, Elton's guitarist ... 18 
CHARTS: corn pact guide to the month's top thirty 20 


ALBUMS O' THE YEAR: personal choices from the year s reviews 

21 


GILBERT O'SULLIVAN: Irish singer goes to the U S A 22 

GENESIS; Music Scene Band of the Month 23/24/25/26 

MIKE OLDFIELD; turn on to the quiet musician and his tubular 
bells 27 

EDGAR BROUGHTON: an honest underground band 28 

ELLIE GREENWICH: a golden songwriter starts performing . . 29 

READERS REPORT: more deathless prose 30/31 

TINA TURNER: the sexiest sound in soul 32 

BILLY PRESTON: keyboards preacher 33 

ALICE COOPER: see him — - hear him. Great prizes to be won in 
this month's competition 33/34/35 

HANK MARVIN: a guitarist whose talent casts a long shadow 35 
ALBUMSCENE: three pages of album reviews 36/37/38 

LIVESCENE: tour datelist 39 

WHO; four sides of Who 40/41 

PETE TOWNSHEND: demonstrating care of the guitar. . . 42/43 

STATUS QUO: they've got to be seen live 44/45 

WINGS: McCartney and band in Africa 46 

LETTERS: where it all hangs out. „ . 47 

Contributors: PIERRE BARRAULT, MIKE BEATTY, 

JOHN BLAKE, IAN ELLIOTT SHIRCGRB, STEVE FAR- 
RELL, JOHN HALSALL, TONY JASPER, TONY NOR- 
MAN, CHRIS POOLE, MICK ROCK. 

Photographers: GARY BELL, ED CARAEFF, MICHAEL 
CHILDERS, ANDRE CS1LLAG, CAROL DAVIES, IAN 
DICKSON, RICHARD FITZGERALD, ARMANDO 
GALLO, GRAHAM HUGHES, BARRY LEVINE, BARRY 
PLUMMER, MIKE RUTLAND, MICK ROCK. 

Caver picture of PETER GABRIEL by BARRY LEVINE 
(see pages 23 to 26) 

fjr I PC Magazines Limited. Reproduction of any material without permission is strictly forbidden. 


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So the record business finds 
itself in a bit of a mess does it? 
Well let s see if we can t lay some 
of the blame where it belongs — 
at the doors of the record com- 
panies, the very people who are 
usually first to moan about the 
status quo. 

The old saying ' if you sling 
enough mud at the wall some of it 
is bound to stick" has been prov- 
ed only too true time and again by 
certain companies, but we seem 
to have reached a situation where 
the "mud" is being joined by 
creme caramels. 

In the three weeks up to and 
including November 29, the Beast 
received seventy-three albums for 
review and of that number over a 
third were by big name acts. This 
means that some albums have to 
be ignored due to available space 
and the people most likely to suf- 
fer are the newcomers. 

From the public's point of view, 
some of the stars must also feel e 
drop in sales due to the huge 
choice presented to the punters. 
Can the average fan really afford 
to lay out in excess of twelve quid 
a month on albums by his 
favourites? And if the answer to 
that is "No ", as it must be, what 
happens to the young hopefuls. 

Isn't it time for a pruning of 
catalogues and contracts? 


A certain amount of licence is 
always permitted in journalism but 
some publicists are taking things 
too far, as witness the following 
gems from a brace of the major 
record companies. 

If we are to believe CBS Asha 
Puthfi's story' "like all great fables 
has the makings of a 20th century 
myth, the potential of which is 
comparable only to the other 
truellfe dramas of Monro , Deitrich 
and Piaf. The exact truth — - if 
there be any such thing — lies 
buried in a shifting sand of alle- 
gory, metaphor and symbolism/' 

Former EM! Press Officer David 
Sandison is decribed as "the 70 s 
answer to Phi f Spector" on the 
strenght of a single he has pro- 
duced for something called High- 
way. Splurging on about the 
group the writer says "Hear them 
now so that when your kids ask 
about them ten years from now 
— holographic projection by then 
being perfected — you can mut- 
ter Ah yes, I remember their first 
single . . it was really groovy ." 

Any comments would be 
superfluous. 


Pam and the Beasi 


Congratulations from all at th 
office to the bravest girl of th 
past month. Pretty, red-haire 
antipodean Pamela Henderson he 
consented to matrimony with th 
Beast, The man himself is fly in 
half-way round the world to so 
out the colony and conduct a 
indepth survey of sheep farmin 
before flinging his bride over hi 
shoulder and dragging her back t 
the old country to tie their live 
permanently together. While de 
lighted by the vistas of happines 
that have opened before th 
Beast, we can only commiserat 
with the lady whose charm, del 
cacy and tact will only be able t 
withstand the rude onslaught c 
our writer with the help of he 
strong right arm which, as we ca 
testify, makes a formidable partr 
er for her straight left. 


Chris Stain ton left Joe Coct 
some months ago and has no- 
been replaced by Joe s form* 
colleague Henry McCulloch wh 
split from Wings. In the meai 
time, young Jimmy McCulloch (r 
relation) lately of Stone the Qrovx 
and Blue has got together wh 
Stainton. 

Watch out for a group calie 
Splinter , Managed by form- 
Beatles head roadie Mai Ever 
they have George Harrison as r 
cord producer, Harrison also pla 1 
on their album which features Ji 
Ke finer, Klaus Voorman and Nict 
Hopkins. 

Beggar 1 s Opera are off the roF 
until at least January concentre 
ing on a new single. Rumour h; 
it that this could well be a la 
ditch effort. 

Zep 's John Paul Jones produ 
ed Madeline Bell's "Comii 
Atcha" album and the supe 
groups manager, Peter Gran 
went to the reception for the lac 
to tower above everybody and se 
what was going on. 






with 

the Beast 


The Wambles Jive in fittle caves 
on Wimbledon Common and they 
go round picking up litter. Now 
they've made their own album 
based on the kids' TV series, Mike 
Ban who wrote the theme song_ 
has been running round town in a 
six-foot Womble outfit, and he 
hasn't been arrested. Our man in 
Wimbledon claims never to have 
seen one, but then that's not sur- 
prising. 



Among the five top-selling 
Charisma records in the com- 
pany's four year history are " Five 
Bridges ' ' and "Elegy" by the 
Nice, 



"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath " had 
advance orders of over 42,000 
and the lads are now lining up a 
British tour for the Spring. 



Dutch group Earth and Fire 
have notched up six consecutive 
hits at home and they're plotting 
a British visit early in 1974 to 



Jemey Kaagman 


snow us what they're all about. 
Their singer Jernay Kaagman has 
been voted top female singer in all 
the Dutch polls for the past two 
years. 

John Lennon may be regarded 
by some people as an oddball but 
in his fight to stay in America he 
has the support of the Waii Street 
Journal f Mayor John Lindsay and 
Lord Harlech . How many equally 
influential people are trying to 
hoist him out though? 



For the second year running 
RCA has been voted Record 
Company Of The Your by the 
Country Music Association of 
Great Britain with Dottle l/t/esf 
and Charley Pride being voted top 


You may not be aware of it but 
there are UFOs in our presence 
(Spreading the gospel to rock 
musicians, though thus far the 
only rock musicians the Beast has 
been able to track down that 
admit to this are Country Joe and 
the Fish who appeared at their 
London Press reception attired in 
space uniforms. 

Drummer Virginia Whitaker 
started the ball rolling when she 
confided: 'We were in San 

Rafael, California, when we saw a 
great big round orange ship as we 
were driving down the road." 

She reckons that two fishermen 
in Missisippi were picked up by 
'he visitors "Up there ' and 
shown the inside of the ship, 

Not to be outdone, Joe himself 
said: "The creatures inside have 
two orange daws and one big eye 
in the middle of their forehead. 
They have no mouths but com- 
municate by thought trans- 
ference " 

The Beast being a simple souf 
and one who tends to believe all 
he's told — especially after a few 
glasses of lemonade - — found 
even this a trifle hard to believe 
and muttered something about 
certain substances. But, no, Joe 
wasn't having any of it not sub- 
stances, but the assertion. 

"They said they were looking 
for drugs because they don't have 


female and male singer respecti- 
vely . 

Which record company with 
offices not a million miles from 
EMI claimed not to know the 
prices of albums by John Lennon, 
Paul McCartney and John Lennon , 
all of which they distribute, and 
denied all knowledge of a double 
album by the Four Tops which it 
has issued some five weeks ear- 
lier, claiming that it was not one 
of their albums? And which com- 
pany named after a mythical 
creature distantly related to a 
Tarkus didn't know the price of 
ELP's latest materpiece? And 
which company belonging to a 
world-famous singer-pianist didn't 
know the price of one of it s 
female artist's debut hit album. 
And if when the Beast ever gets 
the price wrong in his review will 
they have the bold faced cheek to 
moan? 

-L_ i-1 

WWW 

it a!! started with the Nice, then 
Lindistarne became involved and 



Country Joe Macdonald 


any on their planet. They live in 
frafaldanor. Thev taught us a 
dance movement called the Vaca- 
tion, My uncle owns McDonald's 
hamburgers, maybe that's why 
they got hold of me." 


Genesis continued the series of hit 
names signed to Charisma . All 
well and good, but boss man Tony 
Stratton Smith being the restless 
soul he is - — except perhaps 
when settled with a brandy and 
milk — has decided to expand 
his label's interests somewhat. 

So an album about the golder 
age of comedy was released, then 
the Barrow Poets contributed and 
even the soundtrack of Orson 
Welles' famous "War Of The 
Worlds" broadcast was secured 
and issued. 

If you think that's weird 
enough, consider Charisma's 
latest two projects. Sir John 
Betjeman has been recruited to 
the ranks of the Soho schemers 
and there are even plans afoot to 
put out an album consisting of 
Buzz Afdrin js pea king to NASA 
control direct from the Moon I 



And which Silly Billy decided to 
hold the Who's a fter-th e-Lyceum 
party in a Greek restaurant? Per- 


A little while later; Virginia crept 
over and whispered "antennae", 
then sneaked away grinning 
Funny lass. 

Though Joe regarded all this 
about UFOs as serious, it became 
obvious that he wasn't joking 
when the subject of his projected 
Dylan album was raised. 

"It's a definite project/' he re- 
vealed. "Harvey Brooks and Mike 
Bloomfield who pfayed on Dylan's 
original album have said they 
want to be on it with me. Tom 
Wilson wilt produce it if it comes 
off. There are some beautiful 
songs he did on tape with the 
band that you can t get hold of." 

As an afterthought, he added: 
"in two years, America is two 
hundred years old and t want to 
write an opera like Pete Town- 
shend's about the history of 
America. I want the Monty Python 
team to write the scripts and I'll 
do the music." Whatever Joe 
has in mind, be it real or imag- 
nary, there was nothing doubtful 
about his set at Goldsmith's Col- 
lege recently. The Beast and his 
nephews and meces went along to 
see the show and were rewarded 
with over an hour of solid rock 
such as Country Joe only turns on 
rarely. Funnily enough all the 
audience looked normal enough, 
no claws, or big eyes or anything, 
even though they were students! 


haps they didn't know about the 
plate-smashing custom, or per- 
haps they did and still felt it sate 
to involve K. Moon and friends. 

A magnificent final concert was 
all but capped by the havoc 
wreaked at the nosherie. As a 
team of national dancers trotted 
out onto the dance floor the air 
was magically transformed into a 
sea of white as plates whirled 
from every corner of the room. 

i he only unfortunate incident 
occurred when a gfass shattered 
on the head of an unfortunate 
female who had to havp stitches 
n the wound. 

And of course it's not only 
London that comes under the 
Who's hammer. Mon treat became 
the latest target for collective fri- 
volity to the tune of £2,000 when 
a hotel room looked a suitable 
place for a wrecking party. But 
then a Who tour wouldn't be a 
Who tour without at least one 
such incident, as the Beast who as 
their former PR man accompanied 
them on a hair-raising German 
tour, can testify. 




words: Chris Poole 



OXY MUSIC have found them- 
selves In a very strange posi- 
tion in the past few months. 
Their support from fans is as 
apparent as ever — the recep- 
tion that they were accorded on the 
recent tour was fanatical to say the 
least, but the response from the press 
was as cool as that of the fans was 
heated. 

The trouble as far as can be ascertained, 
can be traced back to the Eno split which 
left a very bitter taste in some people’s 
mouths. All very well, but people seem to 
have forgotten that it takes two to cause an 
argument — no one will ever know the full 
story, but there is no doubt that Eno must 
have been at least partly to blame, 

A lot of people resented the sudden rise 
to fame that Roxy achieved despite the 
cries of ‘Hype 1 , still nobody shouted too 
loud, after all it was hip to dig Roxy. The 
Eno split was an ideal opportunity to whip 
out the knives and have a quick stab. That 
was not enough however for some people 
— the next chance they got to have a snipe 
was the opening night of the recent Roxy 
Tour, 

That tour opened at The 'Queens Hall in 
Leeds. Now, no disrespect to Leeds in- 
tended, but to put it bluntly, The Queens 
Hall is one of the worst venues in the 
country. It is a big aircraft hanger of a 
place, with nasty booming acoustics, no 
atmosphere and very poor sightlines To 
compound their problems, it was the first 
gig that Roxy had played for some time and 
there were two new men in the line-up. 

Roxy had used ace bassist Johnny Gus- 


taffsonfor their new album “Stranded”, but 
he was contracted to do a tour with Shawn 
Phillips coinciding with the Roxy Tour. 
Consequently the band had to look around 
for someone to play with them. They finally 
chose a New Yorker called Sal Maida. 
Leeds was also the first appearance for 
new member Eddie Jobson, at least Eddie 
had the advantage that he had worked with 
the band on the new album. 

But when you get down to it, it is the fans 
that matter; they are the ones that buy the 
albums and ultimately determine whether 
the band achieves longevity. And they have 
been going barmy. Bryan Ferry has 
become a scream idol. I asked guitarist Phil 
Manzanara whether this worries the band 
— "We are not worried about screamers in 
principal, but on this tour we seem to be 
getting screamers irrespective of what we 
play. Some towns have more screamers 
than others, obviously kids have got to get 
rid of their frustrations and emotions in 
some way. There are always the kids at the 
back who want to listen and you can play 
for them, if ! thought that no one was 
listening then I would be very worried.” 

It is this reaction that has stopped the 
band from getting angry about the critical 
response. Phil admitted that the Leeds gig 
was not up to standard, he told me that out 
of the five gigs that they had played up until 
this interview took place, three were good, 
while the other two were for Various 
reasons not so good. Phil pointed out that 
the band had only been able to manage 
three days of rehearsals before the tour, 
they had been finishing off the album right 
up until the last minute. 

The album, I was told is the bands finest 


achievement to date, Phil told me — “For 
Your Pleasure” had less ideas than the first 
album, but they were full blown. “Stran- 
ded” has different ideas, it explores differ- 
ent musical forms, whereas “For Your 
Pleasure” concentrated on new sound 
ideas and textures. There is one track on 
the new album “Psalm” that starts off like a 
Welsh hymn and finishes' with a New 
Orleans feel. 1 don't think that it is what 
people exPect from us, but I think that we 
have pufled it off. 

The new album certainly shows Roxy in a 
new light, without losing any of the essen- 
tia! Roxiness that characterises the band, 
Eddie Jobson has certainly made little dif- 
ference to the sound. I asked Phil why they 
hadn't given Eddie a lot of freedom. “We 
came to realise that there were certain 
things in the sound that made Roxy what it 
is and we intend to carrv them through. We 
didn’t want to suddenly appear with a com- 
bination of Jean Luc Panty and Rick Wake- 
man, 

”We will of course bring Eddie in more, 
but he is very young — he is also a very 
good technician, but the trouble with 
people like that is that because they can 
play everything they don’t know what not to 
play. In a couple of years time he will be 
incredible, he f s very talented — he just 
needs to listen to the right records. He 
hasn’t heard half of the people that in- 
fluenced the rest of the band. 

Future plans for Roxy include a new 
single which will be recorded after the 
current European tour. “We are going to 
be much more productive from now on” 
said Phil. Which can only add to our plea- 
sure. 



on the Road 


6 


NEWS 

SCENE 



THE A.LLMAN BROTHERS (I to r) CHUCK WEAVELL, 
LAMAR WILLIAMS, BUTCH TRUCKS, GREGG 
ALLMAN, JAI JOHANNY and DICKY BETTS. 

ALLMAN BROS 
TOUR SET 

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS are new confirmed for 
a major European tour early in the New Year, 
including five concerts in this country. British 
dates are Birmingham Odeon (January 12), Man- 
chester Free Trade Hall (14), Glasgow Apollo (16) 
and London Rainbow (IS and 19). 

These will be followed by 


Heights 
take off 

HEIGHTS, the new band 
which has emerged from 
Jackson Heights following 
the departure of Lee 
Jacicson, commence an 
extensive British tour in 
the New Year. It will open 
at a leading London venue 
on January 2, and details 
of the schedule are cur- 
rently being finalised. 

The band — for whom a 
recording deal is at present 
being negotiated — com- 
prise Lawrie Wright (vocals 
and keyboards), Eddie Carter 
[1 2-string guitar, percussion 
and vocals) and Johnny 
Hadfield (acoustic and electric 
guitar and vocals). 

Lee Jackson, together with 
former Nice member Brian 
Davison and Swiss keyboards 
man Patrick Moraz, has 
launched a new-look Nice 
outfit under the name of Re- 
fugee. Currently on a British 
one-nighter tour, they are 
performing old Nice numbers 
as well as new material. 


15 shows on the Continent. 
Support act is the Marshall 
Tucker Band. Because of the 
four-hour duration of the 
concerts, each performance 
will have an early start (6.30 
to 7 p.m., according to ve- 
nue). 


* Bees Make Honey, Ducks 
Deluxe, Brinsley Schwarz and 
Golden Earring co-star in a 
"Pub Rock Extravaganza to 
be presented at London 
Edmonton Sundown Dec 21 . 


RODGERS FORMS 
NEW-LOOK FREE 


AFTER A lengthy 
period of secret re- 
hearsals, the new-look 
Free has finally emerg- 
ed into the open. The 
line-up comprises Paul 
Rodgers (vocals), 
Simon Kirke (drums), 
Boz (bass and back-up 
vocals) and former 
Mott The Hoople 
guitarist Mick Ralphs. 


The band are at present 
actively engaged in record- 
ing an album although, be- 
cause the individual mem-, 
bers are still tied to con- 
flicting recording contracts, 
it is not yet clear on which 
label the album will enven- 
tually appear. Neither is it 
certain if the group will re- 
tain the name of Free. 

Meanwhile two ex-Free 
members, Paul Kossoff and 


Moody’s thoughts 
on China concerts 

THE MOODY BLUES are likely to become the first 
British rock group to perform in China. They have 
been invited to play a series of concerts in Peking 
and other major cities, and hope to be able to take 
up the offer some time in 1974 

The invitation was ex- 


Hawkwlnd: 
new show 

HAWKWIND are featuring 
a completely new stage 
presentation on their cur- 
rent British tour, which 
began on December 10. 
Titled ’The Ridiculous 
Roadshow with the Silly 
Hawkwlnd Brothers", it is 
the successor to the band's 
"Space Ritual' ’ show. 

Apart from a Christmas 
break, the itinerary extends 
through into February and so 
far includes one London date 
— at Edmonton Sundown 
on January 25 — although 
one or two others have still to 
be finalised. 

Also in the schedule is a 
charity concert at Clacton 
Town Hall on January 1 1 
with the Sutherland Brothers 
and Quiver in support. 

Support acts on other dates 
include Chilli Willi and the 
Red Hot Peppers, Fruupp, Al 
Matthews and Steve Gilmore. 
For dates and venues, see 
Livescene. 


Cornish/Rostlll deaths 


B BO-TV producer-dirsu- 
tor Mel Cornish has 
died from cancer, aged 
32. He joined the Light 
Entertainment division as 
a director in 1967 and 
was responsible for the 
Sandie Shaw, Julie Felix 
and Dusty Springfield 
series. He produced 
"Top Of The Pops" until 
recently, and last year 
won the Golden Swal- 
low Award in Knokke for 
his production starring 
Sha Na Na. 


JOHN ROSTILL, former 
Shadows bassist and for 
the last three years a 
member of Tom Jones' 
backing group, was 
found dead at his Radleti 
home. His body was 
found in his workshop 
by his wife and another 
ex-Shadow, Bruce 

Welch. He had appa- 
rently been electrocuted 
while working on a 
guitar. Rostill was 31. 


tended by the Chinese dele- 
gation at the United Nations, 
A Moodies spokesman com- 
mented: "National Press re- 
ports that we shall be going 
to China early next year are 
totally untrue We already 
have commitments lasting 
well into the spring. But we 
are discussing a probable 
visit for later in the year 


Andy Fraser, are reportedly 
getting together a band of 
their own Mitch Mitchell, 
former drummer with the 
Jimi Hendrix Experience, is 
also said to be involved in a 
project. 

These, plus a vocalist, are 
planning to make their debut 
by way of a spring tour of 
Britain. 

* Deep Purple's first British 
appearances with their re- 
shaped line-up are at present 
being set. The band will 
undertake an extensive 24- 
venue tour Starting in early 
March. 



PAUL RODGERS: 
look Free. 


SEEKERS HERE 
UNTIL SUMMER 

THE NEW SEEKERS are to spend the first five months 
of 1974 undertaking live appearances in this country. 
The first quarter will be devoted to major cabaret enga- 
gements in London and the provinces, and they are 
being lined up for an extensive nationwide concert tour 
in the spring. 

The Seekers have also been booked as residents in 
BBC-1 J s new David Frost series "Frost's Weekly" which 
begins a seven-week Friday-night run this month. 


Ronnie 

Lane 

circus 

EX-FACES bassist Ronnie 
Lane has purchased a 
circus marquee, which he 
will use as a portable 
venue for the debut tour of 
his new band Slim Chance 
in the spring. 

He plans to travel 
throughout Britain and to 
pitch the tent whereever 
there minght be a suitable 
audience. The line-up of the 
touring band Is still being 
finalised, though a more 
flexible unit is being used to 
back Lane on his debut solo 
album, which is currently 
beino recorded. 



LANE; Pitching 


REX DRUM LESS 

T.REX drummer Bill 
Legend has left the group 
and, at press time, Marc 
Bolan bad still not fixed a 
replacement. Plans are 
going ahead for a British 
tour by the band In the 
New Year, but no dates or 
venues have yet been 
finalised. 


7 



BILLY FURY: on the road again with Marty Wilde. 

Fury, Wilde head 
rock revival tour 

BILLY FURY and Marty Wilde are among veteran 
British rockers who will appear in a rock revival 
package, scheduled to undertake a major British 
tour in February. 


And there is a strong pos- 
sibility that current Chart 
star Alvin Stardust, alias 
Shane Fenton, will co- 
headline the bill. Other acts 
set for the bill — - which is 


promt: 
| includ 


promoted by Derek Block — 
include Tommy Bruce, Heinz 
and the New Tornados. For 
dates and venues, see Live- 
scene page 39 


Bowie 

with 

Span 


DAVID BOWIE makes a sun 
prise guest appearance — 
playing saxophone — on the 
new Steeleye Span album 
now being recorded in Lon- 
don. The track on which he is 
featured — a revival of the 
old Teddy Bears hit To 
Know Him Is To Love Him" 
— has already been record- 
ed. 

it is understood that 
Bowies involvement was 
arranged by Steeleye s Hick 
Kemp, who is an old friend of 
Mick Ronson s, Another big 
name associated with the 
album is Jethro Tull's fan 
Anderson, who is supervising 
production. 


Mountain 

reforms, 

records 


MOUNTAIN have re- 
formed and have 
already played a string 
of warm-up dates in 
America. Original 
members Leslie West, 
Corky Laing and Felix 
Pappalardi have team- 
ed with new man 
David Perry in the 
group, and they will 
shortly be going into 
the studios to record 
an album. 

The Mountain reunion fol- 
lows the split of West Bruce 
and Laing at the beginning 
of 1973, 

Another development in 
the States is the emergence 
of Bob Dylan from his self- 
imposed hibernation. He is 
undertaking an extensive 
U.S. tour - — his first for 
almost eight years — in 


CHRISTMAS 
ROCK 

EMERSON, LAKE Si PALMER are showcased in a 
55-minute BBC-2 special on Boxing Day, presented 
by "The Old Grey Whistle Test" and introduced by 
Bob Harris. It is a filmed documentary of their life 
both on and off the road - it features them per- 
forming live on stage during their European tour 
earlier this year, being interviewed and relaxing at 
home with their friends. Music content includes 
excerpts from their new "Brain Salad Surgery" album 
as well as older material. 

• Slade, David Essex and Lynsey d© Paul guest in the 
Christmas edition of the Les Dawson show "Sez 
Les", to be networked by ITV on Boxing Day. 

• Kiki Dee and her new band guest in Gilbert O'Sul- 
livan's Christmas special, which ITV network on 
December 23. 

• Slade headline the special Christmas edition of 
Granada TV's "Lift Off" on December 27. 


January and February, 
accompanied by the Band. 

It is not yet known 
whether Mountain or Dylan 
have any plans to visit Bri- 
tain later in 1974. But their 
activities in America have 
already given rise to specu- 
lation. 


IT ISN’T THE END 
OF THE RAINBOW 


REPORTS that London Rainbow 
Theatre is threatened with demoli- 
tion next autumn have been strongly 
denied by Chrysalis, the current 
lease-holders. There had been reports 
rn some sections of the Press sug- 
gesting . that the venue — one of 
Europe's leading rock centres — will 
be torn down in October to make 
way for a shops-and-offices complex. 
Chrysalis have now issued a state- 
ment pointing out that their lease 
does not expire until September, 
1978. 


A spokesman for the Chrysalis 
organisation commented: "Our pre- 
sent lease has options which can be 
exercised at six-monthly intervals by 
the landlord, to give notice to re- 
possess the theatre. But we are at 
present negotiating a new lease, 
which will give us the right to four 
years' uninterrupted use of the 
Rainbow. We plan to make consi- 
derable capital investment in the 
Rainbow, and are confident that its 
future is assured for some years to 
come." 


Argent 

10-date 

U.K.tour 


ARGENT set out on an 
extensive six-week 
European tour in late 
January, taking in a 
dozen different coun- 
tries. Their schedule 
includes ten major gigs 
in this country in late 
February. 

Chi Coltrane co-headlines 
with Argent on their Euro- 
pean dates, though it is not 
yet clear if she will be 
appearing with the band in 
Britain. 

A camera crew will 
accompany the band on 
their travels to shoot a half- 
hour documentary for 
U.S. TV, and this will be 
screened to tie in with their 
next American tour — - a 
five-week concert series 
starting late March, 


ROCK SHOWS ON ITV 

ITV is planning a series of major rock shows, 
featuring leading British groups in concert before 
live audiences. The series is being produced in- 
dependently by Trentdale Enterprises, who pro- 
moted last summer's London Music Festival at 

Alexandra Palace. 

It r$ intended for world- 
wide distribution, and it is 
understood that it will be 
screened in Britain on Friday 
nights by London Weekend 
The shows will be filmed 
at London Adelphi Theatre 
early next spring. 


Baldrvs band 

JOHN BALDRY has formed a 
permanent band, which rs 
backing him on his current 
British tour with the Faces 
and will accompany him on 
his New Year tour of Ame- 
rica. 

Line-up comprises ex- 
Quiver guitarist Cal Batchelor, 
ex-Free pianist Rabbit, ex- 
Spooky Tooth bassist Archie 
Leggatt slide guitarist Sam 
Mitchell and drummer Fred- 
die Smith — plus three 
coloured girl singers called 
Birds Of A feather. 


• Stackridge headline their 
own Christmas concert at 
London Rainbow Theatre on 
Wednesday, December 1 9. 
Other Christmas shows in 
London include a benefit 
starring George Melly & the 
Feetwarmers at Drury Lane 
Theatre Royal (21) and a 
special concert featuring 
Linda Lewis at the Adelphi 
Theatre (23). 



VAN MORRISON: Spring visit. 


VAN MORRISON 
SPRING VISIT 

VAN MORRISON and the 
Caledonia Soul Orchestra 
are to undertake a world 
tour in the New Year, and 
their itinerary will include a 
series of early spring con- 
certs in Britian. 

Acco rd i n g to M o r ri son ' $ 
manager Stephen PiFster, the 
tour will start in late winter, 
and a minimum of four major 
dates in the country are being 
planned for the end of March 
or early April. 

Morrison has now returned 
to America after spending 
three weeks filming and holi- 
daying in Ireland. 

* Duane Eddy returns to Bri- 
tain in February for his first 
tour for six years, and Bill 
Haley & the Comets are 
scheduled to arrive in the 
spring for concert and cabaret 
dates . 


words an d pictures: M ick R oc k 






It’s a hard life for 
a poor millionaire 


Drive a Ferarri at 145 mph ‘and do all the sort of things other people can do when they come 

home at nighf . 


/ • DON’T KNOW, maybe it's the 
hkV broken tooth or the ear-ring or 
something, there's something 
there that raises some spectre 
in people’s subconscious.” 

Keith Richard, the dark-eyed, hollow- 
cheeked Rolling Stone, is talking about 
himself. 

Of all the Stones Keith is the one who gives off 

the greatest aura of evil and danger. 

While dagger has been out winning best- 
dressed men contests and dining with show-biz 
celebrities Richard has been fighting gun and 
drugs charges and screaming down the auto- 
routes at 14Gmph in his silver Ferrari. 

On stage he plays his primitive five-string guitar 
with a chunky crudeness that gives the Stones 
their unique, pounding force. 

And it is his writing, every bit as much as 
dagger’s, which is responsible for the group’s 
phenomenal success. 

Yet, when I saw the band on their recent tour it 
was obvious his role had changed dramatically 
from the days when he played virtuoso lead guitar 
to Brian Jones’ wavering rhythm. 

Now Mick Taylor plays the fancy bits while 


Keith just jumps out the raw, laid-back power. 

'‘Well Mick T aylor is really, really super-good at 
solo work, 

■1 mean his melodic sense and harmonic sense 
is very highly developed whereas mine isn’t par- 
ticularly, But as far as I'm concerned I'm the 
rhythm player. I mean that’s what I like to do, 

"Even my lead playing is based more on rhythm 
than melody.” 

As well as guitar it Is not widely realised just 
how much singing Keith does with the Stones. On 
the new album, "Goat's Head Soup"’, he sings 
lead on the longest track — "Coming Down 
Again". 

And on " Exile on Main Street’’ it was Keith who 
sang "Happy". 

But his voice sounds so much like dagger's that 
it is hard to tell them apart. 

"Yeah," he says, "I really do like singing But 
when I do it, it's usually because it’s one of my 
songs and I know exactly how it goes. 

"It would take an extra four hours for me to tell 
Mick how to do it then Mick says Look you’re still 
doing it better than t would even if I learned it so 
you do it — that’ll save time.’ 

"That's usually the reason I end up singing 
lead". 


Why doesn't he sing more often? 

"Well there would be nothing for Mick to do 
would there? Anyway it’s very rarely that I would 
be able to sing it better than him. 

"Especially on stage if I’m singing 1 have to put 
the guitar playing second and that affects the 
whole sound of the song. If I'm just playing guitar 
l can do a much better job of it”. 

Does he have any plans to make a solo album? 

"I wouldn't mind making one if I had the time, 
but what usually happens If 1 get to thinking about 
that is that I get some songs together and then 1 
think well it really would sound better if l did it 
with Bill and Charlie and Mick Taylor and if Mick 
sang it — so t end up giving my songs to the 
Stones", 

So there was no truth in the rumour that he was 
thinking of leaving the band? 

"No. That all started because Ronnie Wood 
from the Faces was with me one night and we 
were laughing about changing over and saying 
why didn’t Ronnie come and play in my place with 
the Stones on the next four and I'd play for him 
with the Faces. 

"We were saying it would be funny to see if 
anyone noticed the difference, 

"But some one overheard us and thought we 



‘m: 


ARC BOLAN was 
telling me an in- 
teresting story 
Iwhen he was in 
America last time, where he 
was talking to two 12-year 
olds about "Back Off Boo- 
galoo”, and they thought it 
was his first record, and 
knew nothing about The 
Beatles' stuff or anything" 
Ringo says it without a trace of 
sadness, just fascination that 
there’s a whole generation with us 
now to whom The Beatles might just 
as well have happened in the time of 
Attilla The Hun, and to whom Ringo 
Is . . . maybe an actor who makes a 
hit single from time to time. 

Now at last, the kind of album 
that's been half-expected from 
Ringo ever since he became an ex- 
Beatle iscurrently riding high in the 
charts. 

There's no attempt to disguise 
how chuffed Ringo is with it as a 
whole, and he singles out a Marc 
Bolan guitar phrase here, a Bobby 
Keyes sax, solo there, hits off a few 
throwaway drum parts into the un- 
suspecting air around him. It’s 
obvious the album was as much fun 
to make as it is to listen to. 

Beginning with a line-up on the 
first track which has a lot more 
claim to call themselves The Beatles 
than any group since 1970 — 
Lennon, Harrison, Starr, Klaus 
Voorman and Billy Preston — the 
album goes on to include in its 10 
tracks, everybody from Marc Bolan 
to Nilsson to Steve Cropper to Paul 
McCartney to The Band, and has as 
big a variety of styles as musicians. 

Its a something-for-everyone 
album with some rock, some coun- 


7 



BILLY FURY: on thp road again with Marty Wilde. 

Fury, Wilde head 
rock revival tour 

BILLY FURY and Marty Wilde are among veteran 
British rockers who will appear in a rock revival 
package, scheduled to undertake a major British 
tour in February. 


And there is a strong pos- 
sibility that current Chart 
star Alvin Stardust, alias 
Shane Fenton, will co- 
headline the bill. Other acts 
set for the bill — which is 


promoted by Derek Block — 
include Tommy Bruce, Heinz 
and the Mew Tornados. For 
dates and venues, see Live- 
scene page 39. 


Bowie 

with 

Span 


DAVID BOWIE makes a sur- 
prise guest appearance — 
playing saxophone — on the 
new Steel eye Span album 
now being recorded in Lon- 
don, The track on which he is 
featured — a revival of the 
old Teddy Bears hit "To 
Know Him Is To Love Him” 
— has already been record- 
ed. 

It is understood that 
Bowie's Involvement was 
arranged by Steeleye s Rick 
Kemp, who is an old friend of 
Mick Ronson s, Another big 
name associated with the 
album is Jethro Tull's Ian 
Anderson, who is supervising 
production. 


Mountain 

reforms, 

records 

MOUNTAIN have re- 
formed and have 
already played a string 
of warm-up dates in 
America. Original 
members Leslie West, 
Corky Laing and Felix 
Pappafardi have team- 
ed with new man 
David Perry in the 
group, and they will 
shortly be going into 
the studios to record 
an album. 

The Mountain reunion fol- 
lows the split of West, Bruce 
and Laing at the beginning 
of 1973. 

Another development in 
the States is the emergence 
of Bob Dylan from his self- 
imposed hibernation He is 
undertaking an extensive 
U,S. tour — his first for 
almost eight years — in 


CHRISTMAS 
ROCK OH TV 

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER are showcased in a 
55-minute BBC-2 special on Boxing Day, presented 
by "The Old Grey Whistle Test" and introduced by 
Bob Harris. It is a filmed documentary of their life 
both on and off the road — it features them per- 
forming five on stage during their European tour 
earlier this year, being interviewed and relaxing at 
home with their friends. Music content includes 
excerpts from their new "Brain Salad Surgery" album 
as well as older material. 

* Slade, David Essex and Lynsey de Paul guest in thre 
Christmas edition of the Les Dawson show "Sez 
Les", to be networked by ITV on Boxing Day. 

* Kiki Dee and her new band guest in Gilbert O'Sul- 
livan's Christmas special, which ITV network on 
December 23, 

* Slade headline the special Christmas edition of 
Granada TV's "Lift Off" on December 27. 




January and February, 
accompanied by the Band. 

H is not yet known 
whether Mountain or Dylan 
have any plans to visit Bri- 
tain later in 1974. But their 
activities in America have 
already given rise to specu- 
lation. 


IT ISN’T THE END 
OF THE RAINBOW 


REPORTS that London Rainbow 
Theatre is threatened with demoli- 
tion next autumn have been strongly 
denied by Chrysalis, the current 
lease-holders. There had been reports 
in some sections of the Press sug- 
gesting, that the venue — one of 
Europe's leading rock centres — will 
be torn down in October to make 
way for a shops-and-offices complex. 
Chrysalis have now issued a state- 
ment pointing out that their lease 
does not expire until September, 
1978. 


A spokesman for the Chrysalis 
organisation commented: "Our pre- 
sent lease has options which can be 
exercised at six-monthly intervals by 
the landlord, to give notice to re- 
possess the theatre. But we are at 
present negotiating a new lease, 
which will give us the right to four 
years' uninterrupted use of the 
Rainbow. We plan to make consi- 
derable capita] investment in the 
Rainbow, and are confident that its 
future is assured for some years to 
come." 


Argent 

10-date 

u.K.tour 


ARGENT set out on an 
extensive six-week 
European tour in late 
January, taking in a 
dozen different coun- 
tries. Their schedule 
includes ten major gigs 
in this country In late 
February. 

ChE Coltrane co-headlines 
with Argent on their Euro- 
pean dates, though it is not 
yet clear if she will be 
appearing with the band in 
Britain. 

A camera crew will 
accompany the band on 
their travels to shoot a haJf- 
hour documentary for 
U S. TV, end this will be 
screened to tie in with their 
next American tour — a 
five-week concert series 
starting late March. 


ROCK SHOWS ON ITV 

ITV is planning a series of major rock shows, 
featuring leading British groups in concert before 
live audiences. The series is being produced in- 
dependently by Trentdale Enterprises, who pro- 
moted last summer's London Music Festival at 


Alexandra Palace. 


Baldry's band 

JOHN BALDRY has formed a 
permanent band, which is 
backing him on his current 
British tour with the Faces 
and will accompany him on 
his New Year tour of Ame- 
rica 

Line-up comprises ex- 
Quiver guitarist Cal Batchelor, 
ex-Free pianist Rabbit, ex- 
Spooky Tooth bassist Archie 
Leggatt, slide guitarist Sam 
Mitchell and drummer Fred- 
die Smith - — plus three 
coloured girl singers called 
Birds Of A Feather. 


ft is intended for world- 
wide distribution, and it Es 
understood that ft will be 
screened in Britain on Friday 
nights by London Weekend 
The shows will be filmed 
at London Adelphi Theatre 
early next spring. 

■ Stackridge headline their 
own Christmas concert at 
London Rainbow Theatre on 
Wednesday, December 19, 
Other Christmas shows in 
London include a benefit 
starring George Melly & the 
Feetwarmers at Drury Lane 
Theatre Royal (21) and a 
special concert featuring 
Linda Lewis at the Adelphi 
Theatre (23). 



VAN MORRISON 
SPRING VISIT 

VAN MORRISON and the 
Caledonia Soul Orchestra 
are to undertake a world 
tour in the New Year, and 
their itinerary will include a 
series of early spring con- 
certs in Britian. 

According to Morrisons 
manager Stephen Pilster, the 
tour will start in late winter, 
and a minimum of four major 
dates in the country are being 
planned for the end of March 
or early April. 

Morrison has now returned 
to America after spending 
three weeks filming and holi- 
daying in Ireland. 

* Duane Eddy returns to Bri- 
tain in February for his first 
tour for six years, and Bill 
Haley & the Comets are 
scheduled to arrive in the 
spring for concert and cabaret 
dates. 





SATURDAY AFTERNOON at the 
Marquee provided the setting tor David 
Bowl’s return to the stage, three 
months after announcing his retire- 
ment from concert touring. Sacked by 
Mick Ronson and the Spiders, and 
supported by Marianne Faithfull, the 
Troggs, and a new group called 
Carmen, whose sound has been suit- 
ably dubbed ‘flamenco rock’, 

Bowie was on display. His voice was in 
excellent shape, unhampered by a recent 
o ro longed bout of fin, his energy as obses- 
sive as ever, the music fight and inventive, 
and his parade of attire more bizarre than 
even his own treaty standards has led 
everyone to expect, 

AM this was for the benefit of the Ameri- 
can N.B.G. TV programme, ‘Midnight Spe- 
cial’, Bowie himself chose the venue, pur- 
suing further his current obsession with 
the period of his own beginnings in the 
music business, '‘Pin-Ups”, his latest 
album release, consists solely of re%vork- 
Ings of mid-sixties British rock ‘n roll hits. 

Bowie has always had a special affection 


for the Marquee, He used to play there with 
his first band, David Jones and the Lower 
Third, "‘At that time no-one would book us. 
We were considered a freaky band, 
and got booed at every gig we did. The 
only place that would let us play regularly 
was the Marquee, and then only on Satur- 
day afternoons for a free audience”, 

it was some years, and several changes, 
both in musical style, and appearance, 
since Bowie last played there, but again it 
was a Saturday afternoon, and again if was 
free. ”1 wonder what that proves 7 ', grinned 
Bowie. For his return the stage and back- 
drop were completely rebuilt, and the walls 
and ceiling painted black all over. It all 
looked much smarter than anyone could 
ever recall. 

On stage the Spiders, Aynsley Dunbar, 
Trevor Bolder, Mike Garson and Mick 
Ronson, who has recently finished record- 
ing his own album, and who will front the 
Spiders on a U.K. tour in the New Year, 
began to set up. After a couple of in- 
strumental run throughs, Ronson, clad ail 
in white to contrast with the rest of the 
Spiders' black, nodded to the camera 


crew, struck the first note, and nodded 
again to the side of the stage. 

Out sprang three figures, two black, 
male and female, and one white, Geoff 
WlacCormack, who played congas for 
Bowie on his last U.S, and U,K, tours. They 
performed a brief dance routine, then posi- 
tioned themselves in front of their micro- 
phones, to be later introduced as the As- 
tronettes, his vocal back-up group. 

Close behind them appeared Bowie him- 
self, He waved at the audience and grinned 
broadly, “And what ‘ave you lot been up 
to?” he enquired. 

When the hysteria died down, it took 
three takes to satisfy Bowie with the sound 
quality. The audience were far less dis- 
criminating, and applauded them all raptu- 
rously. 

The space in the Marquee Is too limited 
to permit the requisite number of cameras 
to film simultaneously, so each song had 
to be reshof from different angles several 
times. This entailed as many- as five or six 
performances of the same song, including 
run throughs. Assisted by the frenetic film 
crew scurrying about and the clambering 





on t tie stage during performance of the 
more adventurous members of the au- 
dience, the atmosphere generated by 
Bowie's own unique craziness swiftly 
transformed the clubhouse into something 
closely resembling a circus ring — Dali- 
style. 

Throughout Bowie was very patient, very 
up. He filled in the intervals between takes 
rapping with the audience, teasing, laugh* 
mg. After each song he would disappear 
immediately, reappearing dramatically on 
cue for the next one i n a n ew costume . 

Bowie was joined by Marianne Faithfull, 
in a nun's cowl and black cape, for the last 
song, the old Sonny and Cher hit, “i Got 
You Babe”. He frolicked about in the true 
spirit of the song while Marianne watched 
him deadpan throughout, During one long 
break between takes she turned and left 
the stage, and paraded a pretty bare 
bottom, as the spilt in her cape flew open. 








\V 


* 






?e 




5 *? 






si 


- 


words and pictures: Mick Rock 






It’s a Hard life for 
a poor millionaire 


Drive a Ferarri at 145 mph ‘and do all the sort of things other people can do when they come 

home at night’. 


/ w DON’T KNOW, maybe it’s the 
|kV broken tooth or the ear-ring or 

■ something, theres something 

there that raises some spectre 
in people's subconscious . 11 

Keith Richard, the dark-eyed, hollow- 
cheeked Rolling Stone, is talking about 
himself. 

Of all the Stones Keith is the one who gives off 
the greatest aura of evil and danger. 

While Jagger has been out winning best- 
dressed men contests and dining with show-biz 
celebrities Richard has been fighting gun and 
drugs charges and screaming down the auto- 
routes at 140mph in his silver Ferrari. 

On stage he plays his primitive five-string guitar 
with a chunky crudeness that gives the Stones 
their unique, pounding force. 

And it is his writing, every bit as much as 
dagger's, which is responsible for the group s 
phenomenal success. 

Yet, when I saw the band on their recent tour it 
was obvious his role had changed dramatically 
from the days when he played virtuoso lead guitar 
to Brian Jones 1 wavering rhythm. 

Now Mick Taylor plays the fancy bits while 


Keith just jumps out the raw, laid-back power. 

“Well Mick Taylor is really, really super-good at 
solo work, 

“! mean his melodic sense and harmonic sense 
is very highly developed whereas mine isn't par- 
ticularly But as tar as I'm concerned I’m the 
rhythm player. I mean that's what I tike to do. 

‘ Even my lead playing is based more on rhythm 
than melody. 1 ' 

As well as guitar it is not widely realised just 
how much singing Keith does with the Stones. On 
the new album, 'Goat s Head Soup 1 ', he sings 
lead on the longest track — “Coming Down 
Again 1 '. 

And on “Exile on Main Street' 1 it was Keith who 
sang “Happy''. 

But his voice sounds so much like dagger's that 
it is hard to tetl them apart, 

“Yeah," he says, “I really do like singing. But 
when 1 do it, it’s usually because it's one of my 
songs and I know exactly how it goes. 

“It would take an extra four hours for me to tell 
Mick how to do if then Mick says Look you're still 
doing it better than I would even if 1 learned it so 
you do it — that'll save time. 1 

“That's usually the reason I end up singing 
lead 11 . 


Why doesn't he sing more often? 

' Well there would be nothing for Mick to do 
would there? Anyway it's very rarely that I would 
be able to sing it better than him. 

“Especially on stage if I'm singing I have to put 
the guitar playing second and that affects the 
whole sound of the song, tf I’m just playing guitar 
I can do a much better job of if. 

Does he have any plans to make a solo album? 

I wouldn’t mind making one if I had the time, 
but what usually happens if 1 get to thinking about 
that is that I get some songs together and then I 
think well it really would sound better if I did it 
with Bill and Charlie and Mick Taylor and if Mick 
sang it — so I end up giving my songs to the 
Stones 1 ’. 

So there was no truth in the rumour that he was 
thinking of leaving the band? 

“No. That ail started because Ronnie Wood 
from the Faces was with me one night and we 
were laughing about changing over and saying 
why didn't Ronnie come and play in my place with 
the Stones on the next tour and I'd play for him 
with the Faces. 

"We were saying it would be funny to see if 
anyone noticed the difference. 

"But some-one overheard us and thought we 



Th! 


ARC BOLAN was 
telling me an in- 
teresting story 
|when he was in 
America last time, where he 
was talking to two 12-year 
olds about ‘‘Back Off Boo- 
galoo”, and they thought it 
was his first record, and 
knew nothing about The 
Beatles' stuff or anything" 
Ringo says it without a trace of 
sadness, just fascination that 
there’s a whole generation with us 
now to whom The Beatles might just 
as well have happened in the time of 
Attilla The Hun, and to whom Ringo 
is . . . maybe an actor who makes a 
hit single from time to time. 

Now at last, the kind of album 
that's been half-expected from 
Ringo ever since he became an ex- 
Beatle iscurrently riding high in the 
charts. 

Theres no attempt to disguise 
how chuffed Ringo is with it as a 
whole, and he singles out a Marc 
Solan guitar phrase here, a Bobby 
Keyes sax. solo there, hits off a few 
throwaway drum parts into the un- 
suspecting air around him, Its 
obvious the album was as much fun 
to make as it is to listen to. 

Beginning with a line-up on the 
first track which has a lot more 
claim to call themselves The Beatles 
than any group since 1970 — 
Lennon, Harrison, Starr, Klaus 
Voorman and Billy Preston — the 
album goes on to include in its 10 
tracks, everybody from Marc Boian 
to Nilsson to Steve Cropper to Raul 
McCartney to The Band, and has as 
big a variety of styles as musicians, 

It's a something-for-everyone 
album with some rock, some coun- 



weren't joking so that's how that rumour got 
around". 

Was money one of his reasons for staying with 
the Stones? 

Tm not primarily interested in making money, I 
do like money but the only thing that is great 
about it tor me is that I can make money by doing 
what I like to do, 

l Tve been told for years 1 am a millionaire but 
what does that mean. Does it mean you earn a 
million dollars or a million pounds a year — yeah I 
suppose so. 

'But what does a millionaire do if he happens 
to spend over a million dollars a year. That makes 
him a pauper you know. I could earn that tide very 
quickly". 

And despite his wealth Keith is living proof of 
:he old saying about money not buying you happi- 
ness. 

In the past few months his pet dog has been 
stolen, his 13th Century Sussex home has burned 
town, he has had two burglaries, the French 
police have put out a warrant for his arrest on a 
jrug charge and the British police have charged 
lim with possession of a revolver and cannabis, 

'You've just got this vague feeling that there is 
somebody trying to get at you which is a drag. I 
ust try to push it away because there's nothing 
fou can do about it. Mick's had his fair share in 
lis time. Now I guess it’s my turn. It’s just a drag. 

"I have had bad luck this year but up until then I 
vouldn’t particularly say I was unlucky. 

'1 mean for some reason I just seem to present 
i high profile and people have a go at me. 
"here's no way I can think of to avoid it you 
mow". 

When it all gets too much Keith climbs into the 
cockpit of his Ferrari, switches on the stereo and 
iresses his right foot hard down to the floor. 

"I find driving totally relaxing. On the continent 
have driven at 145mph and I find it is one of the 
ew times I can sit there and listen to music and 
jst do all the sort of things other people can do 
/hen they come home at night". 


YOrds: John Blake (of the London Evening 
lews) 

licture: Pennie Smith 


WWifHPPeMIG 
fORGMSfllE *rr 


cepted for the part", 

Ken Russell's "Tommy" film is a 
possibility (Ringo played the part of 
Uncle Ernie singing "Fiddle About" 
on the London Symphony Orches- 
tra's recording of "Tommy"), and 
lest we should forget The Beatles, a 
documentary has been made of the 
whole 12 years in the lives of the 
principals, which could be a history 
lesson for a few of those 12-year- 
olds if and when it's released. 


try, some pop and a lot of you name 
it. There's even a Ringo tap dance 
on side two. 

It's the sort of album which ought 
to sell well on both sides of the 
Atlantic, as "Photograph" is already 
doing. And that situation, unheard 
of for anybody English before The 
Beatles is becoming increasingly 
rare again now. 

"Yes", says Ringo a little sadly, 
"it is getting very segregated again. 
If you look at what England's into 
now, with The Sweet and Slade and 
Donny bleedin' Osmond . . . there 
are still some breakthroughs like 
there always have been, but we 
seem to be getting our own scenes 
now. 

England seems to have got 
around to where the public just has 
five acts or so, and that's all they 
want. When we went over there, we 
thought we d stopped all that, and 
got it all universal". 

Was British radio mainly to 
blame? "Well, i'm hoping it will get 
more exciting now that the com- 
mercial radios are coming out, 
'cause when Caroline and London 
were going, and all that scene, it 
was just a fantastic time for music, 
because the competition was so 
great, the output was tremendous, 


all the different stations would have 
their own specials. And when all 
that closed down, the music just fell 
apart again, and you get in the BBC 
rut, 

"I'm all for the show bands, Alice, 
David and Marc. I got very bored 
with the James Taylor period. He's 
very good, James, but you can get 
that just by listening to the records, I 
don’t want to go out just to listen to 
records, I can play them at home, 
sitting next to the bar". 


□p 

□□ 


However, thoughts of Ringo put- 
ting together the sort of live band he 
has on his album, which would be 
enough to drag anyone away from 
their record player, will probably 
have to remain just a thought. Ringo 
has no thoughts of forming a touring 
band ever again. 

Just because he’s not in the 
public eye, however, so much 
doesn't mean that Ringo's spending 
his time mooching round the house, 
though. "People always think you're 
not busy. They used to think we 
weren't busy when we were touring 


— Oh, aye, they playpd two half 
hour spots, that’s all they're doing 
live, and they make those albums, 
20 minutes a side, could do that in 
an hour'. They always think like that. 

"1 still do a lot of sessions for pais. 
I've done my own album, 1 get about 
50 film scripts a week, I've even 
designed furniture. It's very nice, 
you know, 'cause 1 can do a lot of 
things ’. Priorities? "Just whatever 
comes along at the time — I don't 
think HI ever decide to do just films 
for two years, or just records for two 
years. 1 always think of myself as a 
record artist making films, though, 
and not the other way round". 

One future film Ringo WON'T be 
in is the follow-up to the very suc- 
cessful That’ll Be The Day", for 
which Phil Spector is providing the 
music: "I just don’t think It s right for 
me. The follow-up is David (Essex) 
making it as a star. I've done that in 
reality, and 1 don’t want to go 
through all that torment again. 

Also, in That'll Be The Day’. I was 
just an actor. People tended to 
forget about Ringo and The Beatles 
and all that, and I don't think that 
would happen with the follow-up. 
because Its so musical, people 
would keep relating me to the music 
situation, so 1 don't think I'd be ae- 


□ □ 
□ □ 


There may be more retrospect 
Beatles albums too. following the 
huge success of the two double- 
albums released in 1973. "We've 
still got enough for another couple, 
but we won’t put anything out for a 
couple of years anyway ". 

Which took us back to where we d 
begun. "People who had the old 
records bought the double-albums, 
because the old copies were 
scratched, but I think a lot of new 
people bought them as well. To the 
kids of today, we Ye just like a myth. 
Some legend of the past. That's 
what's going on, It’s a new crowd 
every year". 

It just goes to prove that nothing 
stands still for long. But then, nei- 
ther does Ringo. 


words: Pierre Barrault 
picture: Chris Waiter 



Chris and Colin greet the noonday dawn. Below: Dave and Colin in the pub 


Nigel Thomas describes th 
routine of a working band 
Pictures taken by CARO 
DAVIES. 

C hris Gabrin, the manag 
of the band, looked co 
fused and dishevellt 
when he opened the doc 
just as if he'd only th 
minute climbed out of bed after 
night of quiet but determine 
dissipation. Appearances don 
lie in East Putney where he liv< 
and where a photographer hi 
come at the early hour of noon 
take pictures of a band calle 
Clancy. 

Apart from Chris, the house hot 
the bass player, unbelievably b 
genuinely named Colin Bass, 
roadie, a couple of kids, their paren 
and black Liverpudlian lead guitar! 
Dave Vasco, 

That's some of the cast, the pi 
tells of their transformation from 
bunch of not so smart individuals in 
a band claiming their rightful place i 
the local torch-bearers of rock n' rc 
down at the Kensington, their regul: 
Wednesday night gig. 

It begins in the office, a corner > 
Chris' room where the filing system 
a roll of sellotape and the wall. Chr 
arranges for a fruit-van to come ar 
collect them in the evening, h 
makes the photographer a cup * 
coffee. It's a manager's job, you se 
to look after all the details of ru 
ning a band. 

Dave comes in looking shaken, \ 
had to get up to go to the Dentist 
7,30. It's doubtful if he can recov 
from such early rising in time for tl 

gig^ 

Filed neatly under the light switc 
is their correspondence with- recoi 
companies. "EMI wanted us, but 
was too late. RCA just didn't want 
know. Muff W in wood sort of stumfc 
ed into the Kensington one night ar 
kind of dug it. " So they were signe 
to Island. 

"It was just an idea/' says Colii 
'to have a band that was a goc 
recording band but that we had 
reasonable amount of control over: 

I d prefer to keep it on a kind i 
funky Jevei. I don't like to use th 
word down-home because it's bee 


Colin and a Roadie (left) and (below) waiting for the time to pass. 


r 


sed before I'd like to keep it as 
ersonaJ as possible, without too 
lany people to deal with 
' Me and Dave write together, 
lough Ernie writes most of the 
>ngs 

This Ernie is Ernie Graham, a small 
seedy Irishman who has been longer 
a the business than any of the 
thers. He sang lead on a single with 
band called Eire Apparent which is 
n the juke bo* upstairs and he's also 
ad a solo album released, Henry 
IcCulloch was with Eire Apparent 
The new roadie turns up bearing 
ifts from the East which soon get 
inn well with those members of the 
and who're around, as well as the 
hotographer. Since it s time for 
rnch, Chris, Colin, Dave and the 
taps hot kid troop off to the pub. 
Come dosing time and it's back to 
te house, this time to the upstairs 
iom where there's a juke box and a 
ddies dartboard. Some tea is drunk. 
no little children are playing on the 
aor while their father, who's not in 
ie group, tries on some scarves be- 
] re going out; he's "tying them round 
is ankles. "It s an exciting life," 
jys Chris, "that's what I like about 
sis kind of existence," says Colin. 
Yes, never a dull moment", finishes 
hris. The room is chilly 
Colin and Dave go down to Cohn's 
iom which is gloomy and very neat, 
hey jam together through a small 
rip while the photographer tries to 
ike pictures despite the gathering 
loom. It s a reminder that they re 
orking musicians after all. 

Colin talks a bit about pub-rock 
They're so laid back. It s a sort of 
hilosophy. Like they re afraid of 
rejecting too much ego into their 
lusic, I understand what they mean, 
hey're reacting against that pop-star 
;ene where they jump around on 
age and kick their legs in the air 
id that's what gets them off. 

"The Brinsleys really started it all. 
nat’s what I mean about getting 
volved in the whole pub-rock scene: 
s ait tied together. Everybody's 
sen in a band with someone. Chilly 
filly. Help Yourself." 

Clancy made their reputation doing 
jb-venues, and the Kensington, 
here they're playing tonight, is one 

■ the centres of the phenomenon, 
ses Make Honey and Ducks De Luxe 
e both ex-Kensington bands, 
ough now they're a bit above that 
id entrance is charged when they 
ay. Clancy are probably the next of 
iese bands to make it to smarter 
groundings. 

Pub-rock really caters for those 
Fiore nostalgic for the good-time 
usic of the early sixties. I've heard 
band doing things to 'Walkin' The 
eg ' which merit the attention of the 
SPCA. 

■ We re not a rock n‘ roll revivalist 
and" says Ernie ferociously, from 
s tone you'd think someone had 
jred to suggest they were, "We'r§ 
>t into nostalgia for the sixties or the 
ties. We re in the seventies and 
e re all well aware of the fact." 
Clancy are working on a single at 
land, "Steal Away", and the pro- 
ems of transition are cropping up 
ere too. The group and the com- 
iny don't always see eye-to-eye, 
fhey're trying to produce us as if 
e were the bloody Sweet, " says 
3lin indignantly. 

The band was slowly gathering 
iwnstairs in Chris' room, Ernie 
raham turned up. hard on the heels 
drummer George Butler Their 
anager hadn't told them about the 
lotographer and so they're angry 
ieir pictures haven't been taken, I 
)rt of forgot says Chris. 

Finally Orlando arrives with the 
ilivery van from his father's re- 
aurants. It s to take everybody 

ontd. on next page. 



Clancy 

. . . from previous page 

down to the gig. Why can't we all 
have a meal in your father s place? 
he's asked He says they can't so 
firmly it sounds serious, but he 
doesn't say why. However he does 
drive everybodyXlown to the pub. 

The Kensington is empty except for 
the roadies setting up the gear Chris, 
as the warden of the money, buys the 
drinks, but sparingly, one at a time so 
that he nas to be asked. It's not a rich 
band, although Ernie gets a whisky 
on the excuse that he needs it for his 
throat. 

Ernie is a tiny irishman with a habit 
of making the most extraordinary 
monkey faces when he gets excited, 
and he's always excited when per- 
forming. He also has the nearest 
thing to a performers inflated ego in 
the band; his career in the business 
has been longer and more varied than 
any of the others' and he takes him- 
self and Clancy more solemnly than 
they do, if not more seriously. 

On the perils of success he says: 
"For a very short period I was fortu- 
nate enough to know Hendrix. I had 
a very close view of what huge suc- 
cess can do to somebody's music. It 
was really weird watching how he 
had to play to audiences, how they 
wanted to hear "Stone Free" and 
"Hey Joe" three years after they 
were made. 

“It really finished him in a way. I 
know that." 

Quite a lot of Clancy's material is 
written by Ernie. "I write a song, I 
take it to three or four friends I play 
with. They know me and they know 
my trips. It's very easy for a mass of 
people to misunderstand your songs. 
On the whole I try to write songs and 
not personal statements." 

Ernie is grateful to rock-music. "It 
took me from a Belfast ghetto and 
showed me so many sides of life that 
I would never have seen if I'd stayed 
there." 

Finally enough people are gathered 
in the pub and the band begins. The 
stage at the Kensington is unusual in 
that it faces a wall. The audience is 
gathered on either side of the perfor- 
mers. 

But it's here, on stage, that Clancy 
really justifies itself. Their sound is 
well paced, blues based rock and 
they are in good control. 

George Butler, a' quiet man off- 
stage, beats his drums in a voodoo 
like trance from which he emerges 
only briefly Dave shakes his shoul- 
ders, gently taps one foot and runs 
off the lead part effortlessly, the 
keyboards player. Dave Skinner is 
self-effacing, perhaps something to 
do with the dreadful electric piano 
he's playing, Colin Bass leaps around 
with hillbilly cool bending his skinny 
body around the mike stands and 
Ernie screams at the mike and plunks 
at his rhythm guitar. Anonymous 
friends of the band join them on 
stage with a sax or an extra guitar 
and after an hour's sweaty set they're 
all introduced to the audience, ins- 
trument by instrument, on the band's 
final number. "Time To Say Good- 
bye." 

The audience really love it and 
work up a big sweat, which delights 
the pub manager. Mr Farrelly whose 
beer they're buying He claims this 
distinction "I've sacked almost all the 
good bands in London" he. said, and 
that includes Clancy, but he's taken 
them back now. and they'll probably 
carry on playing his pub till they 
make it 


I N NO WAY does Lee Jackson 
regard Refugee as a re- 
formed, re-vamped or repla- 
cement Nice The trio involv- 
ing him with his former Nice 
partner Brian Davison and 
new keyboard man Patrick 
Moraz is*, he insists, a completely 
new venture. 

But people will insist that this is 
just the Nice back again, albeit 
without whizz kid Keith Emerson and 
when pressed, Lee says: "It has 
taken three years and another 
nationality to find a keyboard 
player." 

Any similarities with the much 
lamented Nice should end with the 
line-up and the fact that "She Be- 
longs To Me" and "Diamond Hard 
Blue Apples Of The Moon" are being 
retained from the old trio's repertoire. 

Lee suggested that I join him for 
breakfast at an unholy hour and when 
I duly called at his smart Battersea 
abode he was still abed. While I 
perched daintily on the end of his pit, 
his "lady what does" provided tea, 
toast and marmalade while his "lady 
what sometimes does" provided him 
with other satisfactions. 

Patrick was en route from Earls 
Court and while he travelled, Lee told 
me how he came to link up with 
himself and Brian. 

We found him in Balse in 1969 
when the Nice was playing there. He 
had travelled from London but arrived 
too late for the concert so he booked 
into the nearest hotel which happen- 
ed to be where we were staying and 
he found us in the bar. Emmer was 
jamming and Patrick asked if he 
could sit in. We thought Oh, my 
God' but when he sat down and 
Emmer started playing all these intri- 
cate runs, he kept up with him and 
did some improvising of his own. 

"When his contracts expired he 
phoned me from Tokyo and came 
over to join me. We got hold of Brian 
who had been keen on the idea of 
re-forming a trio for some time. We 
had to handcuff ourselves to Brian to 
dry him out but once we got round to 


rehearsing everything was fine!" 

Patrick, who has played with such 
luminaries as Billy Cobham and the 
Swiss Symphony Orchestra plays 
piano, melotron, two mini moogs, an 
ESP synthesiser, grand piano and a 
Hammond organ. They all have to be 
balanced separately and his roadie is 
almost permanently on stage pro- 
gramming them. 

Brian started off with Every Which 
Way after the demise of the Nice and 
then drifted into a sort of limbo. 

"His tastes run from what we do to 
very avant garde things and he 
couldn’t find anyone compatible," 
Lee explained. 

Frequent phone calls, all of which 
were met with "Hello, and who's 
calling the Golden Shot?" from Lee 
continually interrupted our chat 
which finally ended with Patrick's 
arrival. While Lee showered. Patrick 
and I adjourned to the lounge where 
he expounded his theories on what 
makes a good musician. 

The ability to interpret a work in 
one's own way and to improvise 
without being self-indulgent are, he 
feels, of prime importance. And that 
seems quite reasonable. It is now to 


be hoped that Refugee will not have 
to live up to its name and take shelter 
from an onslaught of "they're not as 
good as the Nice" type comments 
from people. We've had all that with 
ELP baiters. 

Refugee, which has just begun 
working and which is now starting on 
an album for Charisma, has two 16 
foot towers on each side of the stage 
to carry the 3000 watt PA and lights 
Lee is contenting himself with a 1 50 
watt custom built American amp.. 

The name Refugee was thought of 
by one Gail Munt, a respected Cha- 
risma lady, in a pub called the Nellie 
Dean in Soho and Lee thinks: "The 
group is what Nice would have been 
if they had still been together." 

Lee of course has been through 
successive line-ups with Jackson 
Heights and though there were some 
nice musical moments, the time came 
when Lee decided he had to call it a 
day. 

"I got sick of being a band leader 
when you have all the problems and 
everyone else wants to grab the 
money and say how things are 
done," he told me. 


Refugees 
from a 

Nice Past 

words: Richard Green 



Refugee (l-r) Patrick Moraz, Lee Jackson, Brian Davison. 



CRPTRIN 



4URRPIRH 
KOQCH ROLL 



SCRIPT BY CKZ ‘ ART ESi* CHRIS WELCH 


?lwm ' 



Ctton John-Star 




The world is now aware that “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” is one of the finest albums of the year and the tour which 
followed its release is coming to an end in a few days down at the Hammersmith Odeon after scenes of jubilation and 
delight akin to those that greeted the relief of Mafeking. So Elton John is happy. But what about the others who make up 
the show. Well two in particular stand out. Bernie Taupin who writes the words for Elton’s songs, and Davey Johnstone 
whose skill on guitar and banjo is an integral part of their performance. Elton is Show-biz glamour and entertainment, 
but he’s also a musician of rare quality, and the final effect he achieves comes from blending his own talents with those 
of others. On record, if not on stage, thev are all stars, Elton is just first among equals. 




Berate Taupte'-lyr/c/st 


ERNIE TAUPIN writes poetry. 
Now this may not come as any 
great surprise to those of you 
who look upon song lyrics as 
poetry set to music, but for those of 
you who don’t, you’ll be pleased to 
know that Bernie too regards them as 
completely separate activities. 

"I really get annoyed at people who 
think that writing rock lyrics is exactly the 
same as writing poetry. They’re two com- 
pletely different styles of expressing one- 
self. There’s no way that I write song 
lyrics in the same vein or even in the same 
state of mind that I do poetry”. 

Did he think then, that song lyrics 
should be simpler and less intricate in 
content? 

“Yes I do on the whole. I’m a great 
believer in telling a story in songs. I like to 
inject a bit of humour into my lyrics and 
have people understand what I’m trying to 
say. I don’t believe in expressing myself in 
a way that I end up by being the only 
person who can understand what I’ve 
written. I like everyone to be able to follow 


what I’m getting at”. 

But what about the poetry? How long 
had he been working on that? 

"Well I’ve always doodled” he replied 
grinning. “But its only recently that I’ve 
started to keep anything that I’ve done. 
While we were doing the “Don’t shoot me 
album I used to spend odd spare 
moments fiddling about with words in a 
corner. Basically what I was turning out 
was children’s ‘Nonsense’ poetry — sort 
of a cross between Edward Lear and 
Spike Milligan. 

“I found I really enjoyed doing it and 
began to keep the bits of paper I’d fiddled 
about on. I lost interest for a while but it’s 
been revived now and hopefully I’ll have a 
book ready for publishing by early next 
year”. 

It's not long now since Bernie returned 
from Elton's American tour. 

‘‘That was one hell of an exhausting 
tour”, he sighed. “I don't know how they 
managed to keep it up. I think if it hadn’t 
been for the fact that they’d hired a 707 
jet to take them to and fro they’d have 
completely collapsed. The whole of the 


words: Mike Beatty 

inside of the plane was refitted with sleep- 
ing accommodation, Hi-Fi sets and a small 
cinema.* They even had the Marx Brothers’ 
Duck Soup’ in the film stock which was 
incredible”. 

The mention of old movies obviously 
brought up the subject of influences. Did 
Bernie find his writing particularly in- 
fluenced by some of the 'oldies’. 

“I guess I do to a certain extent” he re- 
plied, “but I’m not an old movie buff if 
thats what you mean, I can’t remember 
who directed what and the year it was 
made”. 

A short listen to “Yellow Brick Road” 
shows the movie influences strongly. “I’ve 
Seen That Movie Too” is the obvious ex- 
ample, but a certain nostalgic fondness 
for the golden age of Holywood shows 
throughout, especially on the tribute to 
Marilyn Monroe “Candle In The Wind” 
and in “Roy Rogers”. An honest listen to 
any of these songs shows that song-lyrics 
may be different from poetry, but they in- 
volve a skill all of their own. 

please turn over 







Davey Jo/insfone-Gu/tar/st 


words: Ian Elliott Shircore 


TO LISTEN to most of the big rock 
guitarists talk, you’d think they were all 
born to boogie, sitting in their cots with 
scaled down Les Pauls and belting out 
Johnny B. Goode while the other two- 
year-olds waved their rattles and sang 
“Baa Baa Black Sheep” 

But tor most of them, it a s been a long 
road to the top. And in many cases, the first 
faltering steps gave no clue as to where the 
road would lead, 

Davey Johnstone, lead guitarist with 
Elton John s group and the man who has 
been largely responsible for their more ag- 
gressive, funky sound over the last two 
years, started out on the Yellow Brick Road 
while he was sixteen and still at school. 

He used to.travel 40 miles every weekend 
to play the banjo in a second-rate folk 
group in Fifeshire, until his big break sud- 
denly came. 

At the time, he modelled his style on 
Barney McKenna of the Dubliners and 
when Irish folkie Noel Murphy was doing a 
Scottish tour and heard him play, he sug- 
gested th at th ey team u p . 

Scotland was a dead and alive hole, 
musically, so Davey took the plunge and 
joined Murphy, whose eye for fresh talent 
had already earned him a reputation as the 
John Mayall of the folk scene. It was a 


ridiculously successful combination. 

For two years the huge, red-bearded 
Irishman and the skinny, pale Scot trekked 
round every corner of the British Isles, 
playing in pubs and tiny folk clubs and 
becoming one of the scene's legendary 
partnerships. 

Davey and Noel played everything from 
traditional folk songs to "Hey Jude" and 
"Midnight Rambler”, "It was amazing. We 
slept on stations and did gigs with two full 
crates of Guinness on stage, so that Noel 
could have transfusions between the 
verses of the songs,” And everywhere 
people were knocked out by the warmth of 
Noel‘s personality and the blinding skill of 
Davey’s playing. They'd really ham it up. 

Davey was playing mainly mandolin and 
banjo, with a bit of guitar thrown in, and 
he’d switch from left to right-handed play- 
mg in mid-solo, rip off dazzling runs with 
the instrument held behind his back and 
still go through five or six pints in the 
course of a set. 

It was glorious entertainment, but it 
couldn't last for ever. Davey left and Noel 
went back, after a short while, to working 
the circuit on his own, 

Davey joined Magna Carta, a successful 
folk group without much spunk but with a 
very commercial line in knights-and-ladies- 
lackaday romanticism. 

I saw one of Davey’ s last gigs with the 
Magnas and it was quite extraordinary. For 
most of the set, he played delicate, con- 


structive acoustic guitar, filling out the 
sound and adding little touches here and 
there which made some of the weak mate- 
rial sound really impressive. But he was 
obviously feeling frustrated and restricted 
by the group's format and songs. 

He'd recently started playing electric 
lead on stage on a couple of numbers and 
eventually he broke loose and screamed off 
into a long, deafemngly distorted Hendrix- 
style solo which was an absolute negation 
of the Magnas 1 gentle lyricism. It was 
brilliant, but we somehow guessed he'd 
soon be leaving the group. 

Davey had been in demand for quite a lot 
of sessions for other people at this stage, 
including several tracks on the Bernie 
Taupin solo album, but it took him com- 
pletely by surprise when Elton John rang 
up and asked him to join the group, 

"I was so staggered that I put the phone 
down and then rang back to check that it 
wasn't some kind of a joke, 

"I knew we’d worked well together on the 
sessions and I think Elton liked the way i'd 
pick up a song by ear and add something to 
it. That's one of the things you learn from 
the folk scene and he’s just like that him- 
self. He's so spontaneous. He has amazing 
ideas and he goes straight ahead and 
carries them out Immediatley." 

Since he joined the band in January 72, 
life has been pretty hectic. "It’s all moved 
so fast. We've only had about five months 
at home in England. We’ve made four 
albums abroad^one three major US tours, 
two in Britain and others in Italy and Ger- 
many.” 

It was originally decided to record 
"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" in Jamaica. 
But although things didn't work out like 
that, the time the group spent rehearsing 
there was tremendously important. 

Elton wrote 1 4 new songs in the space of 
two or three days and everyone came away 
with a new spirit of confidence. Eventually 
the whole double album was done in a 
month at the legendary honky Chateau, 
near Arles, in the heart of Van Gough 
country in France, 

They’re all delighted with the way it 
turned out and the way people have reac- 
ted to it, "It’s like the singles thing, you see. 
Up until Rocket Man', the singles just 
weren't getting through and people had us 
down as an album band. Now we re cover- 
ing all sides of the market”. 

n s a hell of a long way from folk in 
Fifeshire to playing at Madison Square 
Gardens and hitting gold with every record 
the group makes, but Davey's taking it 
calmly. He’s made one solo record, "Smil- 
ing Face”, and another is planned for next 
spring. "The nice thing about being with 
Elton John is the fact that it gives me the 
chance to do whatever l want to do. And 
people even encourage me. it doesn't freak 
me, because it's what I always wanted — 
it's all just worked out right.” 



1 



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1 l LOVE YOU LOVE ME LOVE, Gary Glitter (released EMi 73 on Beil) 

Composed: Mike Leantler /Gary Glitter, prod. Mike Leander 

2 LET ME IN r The Osmonds (reteased 19.10.73 on MGM) 

Composed: Osmonds, prod Alan Osmond 

3 DYNAMITE, Mud (released 5.) 0.73 on R.AK) 

Composed: Nicky Chinn/Mike Chapman, prod. Nicky Chin/Mike Chapman 

4 PHOTOGRAPH, Ringo Stair (released 1 2 .to. 7 3 on Apple) 

Composed: Ringo Starr/ George Harrison, prod, Richard Perry 

5 WHEN I FALL IN LOVE, Donny Osmond (released 16 11.73 on MGM) 

Composed: Young /Heyman, prod. Mike Curb/ Don Costa 

6 PUPPY SONG /DAY DREAMER, David Cassidy (released 5 . 10.73 an Sell) 

Composed: Terry Dempsey/ Harry Nilsson, prod. Rick Jarrard 

7 SORROW, David Bowie (released 12 10 73 on RCA) 

Composed- Feldman/ Goldstein /G cute hero. prod David Bowie /Kan ScoU 

8 TOP OF THE WORLD, Carpenters (released 5.10.73} on A&M) 

Composed: Carpenters, prod. Karen and Rickard Carpenter 

9 PAPER ROSES, Marie Osmond (released 9.11 ,73 on MGM) 

Composed: Torre/ Spellman, prod. Sonny Jamas. 

10 MY COO-CA-CHOO, Alvin Stardust (released 5 10 7 3 on Magnet) 

Composed: Alvin Stardust, prod Peter Shelly 

11 DO YOU WANNA DANCE, Barry Blue {released 12.10.73 on Bail), 

Composed: Blue/Roker/Shury, prod. Barry Blue 

12 WHY OH WHY OH WHY, Gilbert O'Sullivan (released 2G .to .73 on mamj 

Composed: Gilbert O'Sullivan, prod, Gordon Mills 

13 LAM PLIGHT, David Essex (released 2.11.73 on CBS) 

Composed: David Essex, prod. Jeff Wayne 

14 WON'T SOMEBODY DANCE WITH ME, (released 5 10 73 on MAM) 

Lynsey De Paul Composed: lynsey de Paul, prod Lynscy de Paul 

15 HELEN WHEELS, Wings (released 19.11 73 on Apple) 

Composed: Paul & Linda McCartney, prod. Paul McCartney 

16 THIS FLIGHT TONIGHT, Nazareth (released 5 10.73 on Mooncrcst) 

Composed. Joni Mitchell, prnrf Roger Glover 

17 DAYTONA DEMON, Suzi Quatro (released 29.9 .73 on RAK) 

Composed- Nicky Chinn/ Mike Chapman, prod. Mickie Most 

18 FOR THE GOOD TIMES, Perry Como (released 10 .8 .73 on RCA) 

Composed: Kris Krislofferson, prod Chet Atkins 


I Jf 

s«© ,S 

'‘t’&XHG 

8**1 

30 

* §o v 


J»v p 


1 PIN-UPS, David Bowie (released 19.10 73 on RCA) 

Composed: Various, prod. David Bowie/ Ken Scott 

2 GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD, Elton John (released 5. 10,73 on DJM) 

Composed: John/Taupin. prod. Gus Dudgeon 

3 AND I LOVE YOU SO, Perry Como (released 6.73 on RCA) 

Composed: Various, prod. Atkins 

4 HELLO, Status Quo (released 20.7 ,73 on Vertigo) 

Composed: Status Guo. prod Status Quo 

5 QUADROPHENIA, The Who (released 9. 11 . 73 on Track) 

Composed: Pete Townshend. prod. Pete Townshenri 

6 I'M A WRITER NOT A FIGHTER, Gilbert (released 21 .B .73 on MAM) 

O'Sullivan Composed: Gilbert O'Sullivan, prod MiEEs 

7 NOW AND THEN, Carpenters (released 1 5 6,73 on A&M) 

Composed: Various, prod. Karan & Richard Carpenter 

8 THESE FOOLISH THINGS, Bryan Ferry (released 5 10 73 on island) 

Composed: Various, prod. Bryan Ferry 

9 SLADEST, Slade (released 20.B.73) on Polydor) 

Composed: Holder/ Lea, prod. Chas Chandler 1 

10 20 POWER HITS, Various Artists (released 11 73 on Kiel) 

Composed Various 

11 DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, Pink Floyd (released 4.73 on 1 Harvest) 

Composed: Pink Floyd, prod. Pink Floyd 

12 STRANDED, Roxy Music (released 9 .H .73 on Island) 

Composed. Manzanera/ Ferry/ Mackey, prod. Ctins Thomas 

13 THE PLAN, The Osmonds (released 8.73 on MG M) 

Composed: Osmonds, prod, Alan Osmond 

14 SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND, (released 29.9 73 on Charisma) 

Genesis Composed: Genesis, prod John Burns 

15 SING IT AGAIN ROD, Rod Stewart (released 8,73 on Mercury) 

Composed- Various 

16 ALADDIN SANE, David Bowie (released 4.73 on RCA) 

Composed: David Bowie, prod Bowio/ Scott 

17 ROCK ON, David Essex (released 3,1 1 73 on CBS) 

Composed: David Essex, prod Jeff Wayne 

18 SINGALONGAMAX, Max Bygraves (released 9.73 on P ye) 

Composed: Various, prod Cyril Stapleton 


19 STREET LIFE, Roxy Music 

20 CAROLINE, Status Quo 


(released 2.11 .73 on Island) 
Composed Bryan Ferry, prod. Chris Thornes 


(released 31.8.73 on Vertigo) 
Composed: Status Quo., prod. Status Guo 


21 GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD, Elton John (released 2 1 .9.73 on djm) 

Composed-- Elton John/Bemia Tauprn. prod. Gus Dudgeon 


22 YOU WONT FIND ANOTHER FOOL (released 1 6.n.73 on Polydor) 

LIKE ME New Seekers Composed' Stevens, prod Tommy Oliver 


23 ROLL AWAY THE STONE, Mott the Hoople (released 9, 1 1.73 on CBS) 

Composed: Ian Hunter, prod. Mon the Hoople 


24 AMO U REUSE, Kiki Dee 


(released 9.73 on Rocket) 


Composed: John/Taupm. prod Ellon John/Ciive Franks 


25 EYE LEVEL, Simon Park Orchestra 

26 DECK OF CARDS, Max Bygraves 

27 GHETTO CHILD, Detroit Spinners 

28 TRUCK ON, T* Rex 


(released 3.10.72 on Columbia) 
Composed: Park, prod Simon Park 


(released 14.9.73 on Pye) 
Composed: Texas Tyler, prod. Cyril Staple! on 


(released 14 9 73 on Atlantic) 
Composed: L Creed /T Bell 


frereased IS. 11.73 on EMI) 
Composed: Marc Bo!an r prod. Tony Visconti 


29 KEEP ON TRUCKIN', Eddie Kendricks (released 5.10.73 on Tamla Motown) 

Composed: Eddie Kendricks, prod Wilson/ Caston 


30 MIND GAMES, John Lennon 


(released & . 1 1.73 on Apple) 
Composed: Lennon, prod. Lennon 


19 DREAMS ARE NUTHIN' MORE THAN WISHES (released 2 1 1 73 on Bell) 
David Cassidy Composed: Various, prod Rick Jarnad 


20 LOUD N p PROUD, Nazareth 

21 GOATS HEAD SOUP, Rolling Stones 


(released 26.10.73 on Mooncrest) 
Composed: Nazareth, prod. Roger Glover 


(released 6.9.73 on Rolling Stones) 
Composed: Slones, prod. Jimmy Miller 


22 MOTOWN CHARTBUSTERS, Vol. 8. 
Various Artists 


(released 10 73 on Tamla Motown) 
Composed 1 Various 


23 RINGO, Ringo Starr 

24 HUNKY DORY, David Bowie 

25 THE BEATLES 1967-1970 

26 A SONG FOR YOU, Carpenters 


(released 16 117 3 on Apple) 
Composed: Various, prod. Richard Perry 


(released 1 7 12.71 on RCA) 
Composed: David Bowie, prod, Ken Scott 


(released 4.73 on Apple) 
Composed; Lennon/McCartney, prod Martin 


(released U S 7 2 00 A&M) 
Composed: prod Richest & Ka-eo Cerpen.er 


27 GOOD VIBRATIONS, Various Artists 


(released 1 5 9, 7 3 on floneo) 
Composed: Various 


28 SIMON AND GARFUNKEL S GREATEST HITS (released 7,7.73 on CBS) 

Composed: Simon /Garfunkel. prod. Various 


29 TATOO, Rory Gallagher 

30 ERIC CLAPTON S RAINBOW CONCERT 


(released 1 1 .73 on Polydor). 
Composed: Rory Gallagher, prod. Rory Gallagher 


(relea&ed 1 2 1 0.73 on RSO) 
Composed: Various, prod. Bob Pridden 


Compiled from the weekly li&ls published by T4ew Musical Express ", this chart shows the best sellers lor fhe monlb prior to publication and is not intended lo retted the current Top Thirty 


21 


Albums 
O’ She Year 



Two hundred arid ninety-three album reviews have 
graced the pages of "Music Scene" during the past year 
and of these, our clinical team of reviewers have seen fit 
to bestow upon seventy-eight of them the accolade of a 
Guy Award, a recommendation not to be taken lightly. 

From those favoured albums, a mere sixteen have been 
selected by reviewers the Beast, Nigel Thomas, Dave 
Wadmore and Bob Clegg as their personal choice for 
Album's O' The Year. 

The Who, Mott the Hoople, Rick Wakeman and Spirit 
emerge as first choices. And when you consider that 
something in excess of four hundred albums were re- 
ceived, to rise to the top of the pile takes some doing. 
Here are each person's fave raves. 


Dave Wadmore 



SPIRIT; Twelve Dreams Of Dr 
Sardonicus {Epic) 

This is really a cheat. The 
album's a re-release, albeit most 
welcome and opportune, but it 
still serves as a great example of 
Randy California and Jay Fergu- 
son (now Jo Jo Gunne) combin- 
ing superbly 

"Animal Zoo", "Nothin' To 
Hide”, "Space Child" and in fact 
all the tracks are gonna make 
excellent listening for a few more 
years, Surely there ain't no better 
test than time? And it's always 
nice to let a little Spirit affect 
your brain. 

Richard 'The Beast' 
Green 

RICK WAKEMAN: The Six 
Wives Of Henry VIII (A&A/I) 

Based around Rick's interpret- 
ations of the musical character- 
istics of the wives the album 
features the virtuoso on nine 
instruments. His sense of timing, 
structure and mood would be 
hard to fault, his enterprise, 
experimentation and success are 
beyond criticism. 

DUANE ALLMAN: An Anthology 
(Capricorn) 

It was a toss up between this and 
Wakeman's album for my pick o' the 
year To my mind Duane s version of 
"Goin' Down Slow” is one of the 
most poignant numbers ever and my 
mates are beginning to wonder if I 
ever play anything else. Duane's 
contribution to rock music was vast 
and his loss is great, Let us be 
thankful that this double album is 
around to serve as a constant re- 
minder of hrs work. 

VARIOUS ATRISTS: Music From 
Free Creek (Charisma) 

Stick people like Emerson, Dr 
John, Harvey Mandef, Chris Wood, 
Mitch Mitchell, King Cool and Linda 
Ronstadt into Madison Square Gar- 
den for a few days, lei 'em jam and 
record the lot. That's what happened 
here and the result is remarkable, 
You can almost sense the freedom 
and enjoyment on numbers like the 
remarkable version of "Lay Lady 
Lay' Perhaps if contracts weren t so 
tight there'd be more like this. 

CAT STEVENS: Foreigner (island) 

Another guy regarded as one of the 
foremost singer/ songwriter talents. 
Cat devoted one side of the album to 
his eight-movement "Foreigner 
Suite", among which "Heaven Must 
Have Programmed You and "Sweet 
Blue are works of true beauty. Each 
step he takes serves to further 


underline his talent and by sur- 
rounding himself with such musicians 
as Phil Upchurch and Herbie Flowers 
he adds to the appeal of his product. 

Nigel Thomas 

THE WHO: Guadrophenia 
(Track) 

A late starter, Quadrophenia 
must be first choice for album o' 
the year for any person sound of 
hearing, Townshend's story of 
Jimmy the mod, the four sides of 
his character and his odyssey to 
Brighton in search of himself is 
the most perceptive comment on 
record about the sixties; whence 
we all came, and also shows that 
the Who are still leaders in 
music, treading where no band 
has rocked before. 

Two years in the making, 
Townshend's second attempt to 
get more onto record than a col- 
lection of songs is constructed 
round four themes and the inter- 
play between them makes the 
music constantly interesting. 

And its a gas to listen to, 

BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS: 
Catch A Fire and BurnirT (Island) 

The thinking man s reggae group, 
Marley is a stupendous singer and 
writer, and theWaifers, although they 
eat no meat, are a gutsy Jamaican 
band who keep the fire of their home 


country and dress it up with a musi- 
cal sophistication that never palls. 
Undoubtedly the most exciting new 
sound of the year; anyone who hasn’t 
yet bought one of these records 
should do so at once. 

ELTON JOHN: Goodbye Yellow 
Brick Road (Rocket) 

A top double for Elton and Bernie 
Four sides of songs of different 
moods and styles, a few parodies, a 
tear or two, some rock n roll and a 
couple of jokes, Cynics and intellec- 
tuals may sneer but there's not a 
single dud and if you want music you 
like to listen to. then this is definitely 
one of this year s best. 

VAN MORRISON: Hard Nose The 
Highway (Warner Bros) 

Great news to have an album from 
the soulful rocker from Belfast which 
keeps the standards up. "Snow In 
San Anselmo” and the title track are 
good showcases for a style which ts 
completely original and as nice to 
listen to as honey on toast. Smooth 
and sweet with a hard crunchy bit 
underneath 

ROY WOOD: Boulders (Harvest) 

The epitomy of a one-man effort. 
Woody having written, arranged and 
produced the album, played every- 
thing and sung everything on it and 
designed the art work. Undoubtedly 
one of the supreme world musical 
talents, Roy never ceases to come up 
with something newer and more 
fascinating than last time and J await 
his next album with eagerness. 


Bob Clegg 



MOTT THE HOOPLE: Mott 
(CBS) 

For one moment I forgot about 
the lady I was with when this 
hard rockin' album came on. It's 
that good! Ian Hunter and his 
bunch of demons have come up 
with a collection of songs not to 
be missed. Among the tracks are 
"Honaloochte Boogie and "All 
They Way From Memphis" (the 
best track) and there's a brilliant 
sax contribution from Roxy's 
Andy Mackay on the latter. 

JOE COCKER: Something To Say 
(Cube) 

Cocker has the finest soul voice to 
have come out of England. All the 
more surprising that it should have 
been developed in Sheffield, This 
collection of old standards "St James 
Infirmary Blues and originals like 
the title track is a setting for a voice 
that sends shivers up and down the 
spine. On form he's unstoppable and 
he's on form here, 

PINK FLOYD: Dark Side Of The 
Moon (Harvest) 

The Floyd carry on their own sweet 
way, but this time they've made more 
concessions to where everybody else 
is at. A fine album with hints of the 
old space music, a freaky rhythmical 
cash-register and more than a hint of 
straight modern rock. This is probably 
the nearest thing the Floyd will ever 
do to easy listening, and it s certainly 
no pain to hear. 

ROXY MUSIC: For Your Pleasure 
(Island) 

"The Bogus Man" still rates as one 
of my most-played numbers o' the 
year, emitting as it does alt manner of 
weird and wonderful sounds which 
conjure up interesting pictures in 
your mind. It s a pity that Eno's gone 
now. but the album remains as a re- 
minder of how Roxy once sounded 
An exceptional band producing ex- 
ceptional music. 

GILBERT O'SULLIVAN: I'm A 
Writer Not A Fighter (MAM) 

As an observer Gilbert O'Sullivan 
stands head and shoulders above 
most other contemporary song- 
writers. listen to most of hrs songs 
and you'll spot everyday things 
creeping in, things that others don't 
even bother about' but which make 
all the difference. Gilbert's love songs 
are the best on this album, "They've 
Only Themselves To Blame being 
far and away the best. 

PAUL SIMON: There Goes Rhy- 
min' Simon (CBS) 

The masterful midget proved once 
again that he doesn't need a partner 
to keep him going. Two of the tracks 
"Take Me To The Mardi Gras" and 
"Loves Me Like A Rock" became hit 
singles while "Kodachrome got a lot 
of radio action and American Tune 
looks destined to become a classic. 


22 

G ilbert O'Sulli- 
van is a star. The 
shy, lovable little 
Irishman has had 
three huge single hits in the 
States but his albums have 
failed to register and he has 
only a couple of TV appear- 
ances to his credit. So when 
he paid his first visit to Ame- 
rica recently he was still 
something of an unknown 
quantity. 

Sure they'd heard of and seen 
pictures of this grubby little guy 
who wore knee length trousers 
and a dirty striped tie and they'd 
also heard that the character had 
matured under the gentle guid- 
ance of manager and mentor 
Gordon Mills (say, isn't he the 
guy that gave us Tom Jones and 
Englebert?) and was now wearing 
American high school garb com- 
plete with huge letters and 
polished black shoes. The new 
image had been accepted in En- 
gland and Europe, but how was 
America going to react? 

Initially the Americans gave 
him a more than warm welcome, 
the kids came out in force to 
cheer and mob him and the 


general feeling was, as Gilbert 
told me himself, "Incredible! The 
strangest thing is that they are 
familiar with nearly all the songs. 
We haven't had a bad concert 
yet, the kids have been really 
marvellous. They're really a lot 
wilder than they are in England, 
I mean, I've had dresses, skirts 
and sundry other items of female 
clothing thrown up onto the 
stage". 

Gilbert was convinced, before 
going, that the extent of the 
American public's familiarity with 
his music would not go much 
further than "Alone Again", 
"Clair" and "Get Down", "But 
they must have all been listening 
to the albums and other singles. 
There's been no extensive pre- 
tour promotion, very little TV 
and only a couple of magazine 
features, and still they seem to 
know every song after a couple 
of bars". 

There has been one problem, 
Gilbert is used to performing in 
more intimate surroundings than 
the vast auditoriums he's been 
booked into Stateside. Every- 
where he plays has a capacity in 
excess of 10,000 people which 
he finds very unnerving. 

"When you've done several 
Theatre tours of Britain where the 


t audiences often number fewer 
than a thousand it's very difficult 
to get used to those kind of 
numbers. Some of their halls are 
pretty incredible, and frightening 
. . . especially if it's the first time 
you've ever played before 
audiences that size". 

But it wasn't the big halls and 
the fact that he was relatively an 
unknown quantity that had wor- 
ried Gilbert before embarking on 
the venture: "It was the possibi- 
lity of flopping completely, com- 
ing home a reject from the 
country where I could earn more 
money in a week than in a whole 
year in England. 

"Not that money was the most 
important thing, you understand, 

I still put writing music before 
actually performing it . . . but I 
heard so many tales about British 
acts falling flat on their faces and 
I was worried that it should hap- 
pen to me . . . worrying about it 
was a good thing, basically, be- 
cause the more I worried the 
more I became determined that it 
shouldn't happen. 

"But I was very sceptical' I 
heard that T. Rex and Slade had 
died the Death in America and, 
to be quite honest, when I first 
got there all I wanted to do was 


‘ fly straight home again. But as 
we progressed through the tour 
things got better and better. 

And, whilst Gilbert was con- 
quering America, he had a new 
album and single released in 
Britain on which absence has had 
very little effect because both the 
album "I’m A Writer Not A 
Fighter" and the single "Ooh 
Baby" moved pretty swiftly into 
the charts. Both "Get Down" 
and 'Ooh Baby' are on the album 
andthat'sa fact that would worry 
most stars, "It does a little and if 
it had been my decision then it 
wouldn't have happened" said 
Gilbert, "But I leave that sort of 
thing to my management and 
record company, so it's out of my 
hands". 

The album, which has come in 
for some criticism even from Gil- 
bert's most ardent fans in Britain, 
features funkier, more lively, 
arrangements with hints of Stevie 
Wonder thrown in . . . 

"I.m delighted with the way 
that the whole thing has turned 
out. I wrote the songs with the 
idea that they would only need a 
simple backing and a more lively 
feel. I think the title track is 
positively the best thing I've ever 
done". 


Irish in America 


.Gilbert crosses the water 













C\J v 




l 


words: Richard Green /colour picture: Armando Gallo 


■ NTIL PETER GABRIEL 

■ happened on the 
scene perhaps the 
eeriest thing around 

was Vincent Price in 
all manner of gruesome guises in 
film adaptations of Edgar Alan 
Poe horror stories. Then the 
Genesis singer put an end to all 
that with an act that is at best 
intriguing and at worst spine- 
tingling. 

Gabriel has his own tame mask maker 
who turns out such delights as bat 
wings, fox's heads, illuminated geomet- 
rical hats, flowers, old men's moosh's 
and God knows how many other 
creations. 

As if this is not enough, Peter has 
perfected the knack of appearing on a 
darkened stage with his eyes gleaming 
from the blackness like Christopher Lee 
with a bad attack of the late-night blood 
lust. Theatrics play a large part in Gene- 
sis' music and it's all preconceived. 

While admitting that his partially- 
shaved head is a gimmick; Peter says: 
"The difference between us and other 
bands who are into theatrics is that when 
we've recorded a song we decide how 
best to present it on stage rather ihan 
just put on costumes which bear no 
particular relation to the music." 

Genesis are working on the idea of 
using cartoons to further enhance their 
act and in the meantime have devised a 
whole new performance which has re- 
cently been unleashed on the Americans. 

"We are trying to create images and 
moods with the music and we want to 
use any tools at our disposal to enhance 
the music. We never want the visual aids 
to dominate the music and I don't feel it 
ever gets to that stage with us as it does 
with certain other cases. I would like to 
see our stage act as being strange in an 
introverted fashion rather than an extro- 
verted fashion and I don't think that's a 
contradiction in terms. 


As long as what I'm doing is coming 
from what I feel rather than routine or 
contrived effect tnen I'm quite happy 
that it's justified." 

Another idea the band has in mind is 
that of using a portable theatre where the 
audience would be involved in a fantasy 
during the two/three hour show, not 
only from the stage but via things going 
on around them. 

"We work under a fantasy and my 
part has been to conceive all the cha- 
racters and masks I can from a piece," 
Peter points out. "The visuals are really 
just an adaptation of something that's 
already been written. They began out of 
neccessity; with gaps in the playing the 
door was left wide open to me. Visuals 
can only succeed if the music is just as 
satisfying, it's actually a means to an 
end. 

Visuals should provide some images 
that sink into the music, so if you're 
listening at home you've still got traces 
of the characters floating around inside 
your head." 

Genesis' rise to stardom had not been 
instant. Those who think of an overnight 
success story are quite mistaken. The 
band was formed at Charterhouse, where 
all the original members were educated, 
in 1 966. They made a rough demo tape 
which met with customary disdain from 
the majority of the music business until 
whizz kid Jonathan King took an interest 
in the group and spent the princely sum 
of £10 financing another demo record- 
ing session. 

Decca issued three singles and an 
album between 1 967-68 but none of 
them did a lot of business and the group 
soon found itself in debt. Peter Gabriel 
had this thing about becoming a drum- 
mer rather than a singer and what with 
one thing and another the band was on 
the verge of splitting up several times. 

But I had this confidence that if we 
stayed together we would achieve suc- 
cess," he now recalls. 

Then Rare Bird heard Genesis and 
recommended them to Tony Stratton 


Smith who signed them and appointed 
John Anthony their record producer, a 
job that is now filled by John Burns and 
the group themselves. 

Of those early days when things 
weren't too happy, keyboard man Tony 
Banks says: "Jonathan King was really 
quite kind and he liked our songs and 
didn't try to influence us. I don't think 
we'd really sorted out a direction at that 
time though and we were still rather 
amateurish in the studio." 

As time elapsed, the songwriting talent 
of Genesis became more mature and 
now in these days of the "Selling 
England By The Pound" album the 
writers are recognised as being among 
the most promising of the current crop. 

"People place all kinds of inter- 
pretations on our songs but I think that's 
healthy, it shows some kind of thinking, 
a contribution on their part," Tony con- 
siders. 

Genesis started life as Peter Gabriel, 
Tony Banks, bassist Mike Rutherford and 
guitarist Anthony Phillips. Drummer 
Chris Stewart joined later only, to leave 
after a year or so and be replaced by 
John Silver who was in turn later suc- 
ceeded by John Mayhew in 1 969. The 
following year Phillips and Mayhew left 
and Phil Collins joined on percussion and 
drums. The latest recruit was lead guita- 
rist Steve Hackett in 1971. 

One music paper recently described 
Genesis as "Definitive glam-rock" but I 
would argue with this description. It im- 
plies glitter and tinsel and poovey 
make-up, none of which is evident in 
Genesis' act. Their embellishments have 
a purpose rather than being purely for 
decoration and the music has closer 
affinity with the supernatural than with 
rock. 

A year ago I tipped Genesis for star- 
dom after hearing the band and its 
albums and listening to Phil Collins talk 
about the plans for the future. Genesis 
have made it and what is more satisfy- 
ing, made it on the strength of their 
music and related actions. 


Discography 

SINGLES 

1 967 The Silent Sun/ It's Me (Decca-deleted) 

1968 Winter's Tale/One-Eyed Hound 
(Decca-deleted) Where The Sour 
Turns To Sweet/ In Hiding (Decca- 
deleted) 

ALBUMS 

1 968 From Genesis To Revelation. Where 
Sour Turns To Sweet/ In The Begin- 
ning/Fireside Song/The Serpent/Am I 
Very Wrong?/ In The Wilderness/Con- 
queror/ In Hiding/One Day/ Window/ In 
Limbo/Silent Sun/Place To Call My 
Own. (Decca SKL 4990) 

1970 Trespass. Looking For Someone/ White 
Mountain/Visions Of Angels/Stag- 
nation/Dusk/The Knife. (Charisma CAS 
1020 ) 

1971 Nursery Crymes. The Musical 
Box/Harold The Barrel/Seven Sto- 
nes/For Absent Friends/The Fountain 
Of Salmacis/The Return Of The Giant 
Hogweed. (Charisma CAS 1052) 

1972 Foxtrot. Get 'Em Out By Friday/Time 
Table/Mr Flall/Watcher Of The 
Skies/Can-Utility And The Coastli- 
ners/Supper's Ready (Lover's Leap/The 
Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man- 
/ Ikhnaton And Itsacon And Their Band 
Of Merry Men /Flow Dare I Be So 
Beautiful?/ Willow Farm/All Change/ 
Apocalypse In 9/8/As Sure As Eggs Is 
Eggs. (Charisma 1058) 

‘1973 Genesis Live. Watcher Of The 
Skies/Get 'Em Out By Friday/The Re- 
turn Of The Giant Hogweed /Musical 
Box/The Knife. (Charisma class 1) Sel- 
ling England By The Pound. Dancing 
With The Moonlit Knight/ 1 Know What 
I Like (In Your Wardrobe) /Firth Of 
Fifth /More Fool Me/The Battle Of 
Epping Forest/The Cinema Show/Aisle 
Of Plenty. (Charisma CAS 1074) 



niKT omririD 

"Tubular Bells' has been perhaps the most surprising, and 
encouraging, chart success of the year, NIGEL THOMAS 
takes a first tentative step towards illuminating the 
mystery of the man who made it. 


after a performance at the Queen 
Elizabeth Hall, one of the bunkers 
in the Siegfried Line of culture on 
the South Bank of the Thames. 
Kevin Ayers, Mick Taylor and the 
personnel of Henry Cow together 
with some girt singers for back- 
ground effects. Viv Stanshall 
compered the show and Mike 
Oldfield went down a bomb 

Reviewers dredged up their 
whole battery of superlatives. A 
Masterpiece', A genuinely new 
development in music'. For the 
time being Mike can truly be said 
to have arrived as a cult figure 
who will get the attention he asks 
for r but also from whom much 
will be expected. His next record 
will either establish him firmly or 
drive away his audience. None of 
these considerations seem to be 
bothering him at all* 

1 don't think 1 will change 
with success. Not really, well 111 


27 



just go on the same as I always 
did, though I'm obviously far 
more confident now.' 1 


MIKE OLDFIELD has obviously 
committed himself to extended 
pieces of music, and this is a 
tendency which the most musical 
side of rock has been exhibiting 
for some time, As the limitations 
of the three-minute track become 
more evident many artists have 
been looking for an alternative 
form. 

Most of these attempts have 
been dreadful. The successful 
triers have usually either tried 
linking their songs together 
round an idea, as Townshend 
has done, or they've gone in for 
long inventive jams. These last, 
in the hands of a band like Traffic 
are truly superb, but alf too often 
the improvisational flair is tacking 
and it's a pain in the earhole. 


M aster of ceremo- 
nies, Viv Stanshall 
comes in after fifteen 
instrumental minutes 
to introduce a range of ins- 
truments each of which takes 
up the theme. "Grand Piano" 
he says, in the voice of a 
waiter announcing the Chefs 
special at the Ritz. The final 
announcement, "Tubular 
Bells" is the climax of a track 
that finishes on the gentle 
notes of an acoustic guitar 
after twenty or so meditative 
minutes of beautiful but un- 
dramatic music. 

One track to a side, the first 
release on the new Virgin label 
and coming to you from a com- 
pletely unheard of performer. 
Mike Oldfield is a most unlikely 
figure for chart success. He is a 
retiring figure who spent a year 
planning "Tubular Bells" and 
another six months making it; a 
process which is said to have in- 
volved 2,300 overdubs. The re- 
cord spent 15 weeks in the NME 
top thirty, 1 3 of them in the top 
ten. Oldfield s reaction to this 
success was to buy a house way 
out on the borders of Wales and 
retreat from the city to where 
"there's a lot more room to 
breathe and be normal " 

' There's a very large hill and 
this house is built on top of it. It's 
on National Trust land. The bal- 
cony on the house is supposed to 
represent the bridge of a ship. In 
fact the whole house is meant to 
be like a ship. There are big 
rooms with ceilings about twenty 
feet high and small bedrooms 
like cabins." 

Perched in his ark on top of a 
hill Mike is planning to do it all 
over again. 'Tm writing another 
piece of music. I've already got 
half of it finished. The last one 
was two pieces of music, this will 
be just one. The drag'll be that 
you'll have to turn the record 
over." 

1 "Tubular Bells" realty took off 

% 



"Tubular Bells" is a tightly 
constructed record playing 
around a couple of themes ima- 
ginatively and, which is much 
more important, interestingly. In 
this it is a genuine contribution to 
the attempt to make long-lasting 
rock worthwhile, but it would be 
dangerous for either the musi- 
cians or their critics to ignore the 
novelty value of the tinkling 
sound or the once-only nature of 
the climax to the record. 


MIKE'S MUSICAL CAREER 
started at fifteen. "I left school at 
fifteen and together with my 
sister I made an LP called Chil- 
dren Of The Sun’. We did go 
round doing gigs, we were called 
Sailyangie, but 1 was a bit young 
to know what I was doing " 

So he stopped that and formed 
a rock group called "Barefoot 
"I was writing songs in those 
days. We did some gigs, but we 
packed up after one disastrous 
performance", 

Mike then joined Kevin Ayers' 
new band The Whole World 
where he stayed for two years, 
until he left to begin "Tubular 
Bells" which had been occupying 
his mind as they travelled around 
to performances. He supported 
himself during the recording with 
the occasional session work, and 
kept costs down by living with 
his mum. 

When he had a demo ready he 
started taking it round record 
companies. Four or five of them, 
"Virgin were the first but they 
hadn't started their own label 
then, they were just selling re- 
cords. When they did decide to 
start making them as well they 
gave me a ring." 

History has proved them right. 
Neither artist nor company could 
possibly have asked for a better 
beginning. 


I N THE PRESENT climate of glintz 
and superstars, Edgar Broughton 
and his merry men stand out. They 
retain the quality of honesty and 
directness which has characterised 
music since they first came to the 
notice of the music public in the late 
sixties. For Edga y r there has been no 
compromise. The’ stance of dissent ion 
and the desire to express a communal 
awareness have not been watered down 
to enable the band to pursue material 
wealth and personal glory as has been 
the case with many of the other so-called 
underground musicians of the late six- 
ties, Edgar Broughton is his own man, 
and this has inevitably led him into many 
awkward situations. 

The events of two summers ago are legend 
in the annals of rock 'n roll. The Broughtons 
did what many claim they are prepared to do 
but few actually follow through, They decided 
to take a truck round England and play a set 
of free concerts in certain towns. 

In two of the towns, the ultra conservative 
Brighton and Redcar, they came up against 
local authorities who seemed to believe that 
the band would have a generally detrimental 
effect on their communities. But the locals 
were for it and the band was ratin' to go; so 
they set up. In each town the local police 
trotted up and led them off for a night in the 
cells. And the next day they were charged 
with criminal activity. Incitement to riot, or 
trespassing or something of the kind. They 
paid their fines, but left undaunted. * 

<1 

□ □ □ 

Earlier f ;n that same summer they under- 
took what turned out to be a very strange and 
not altogether pleasant tour of Germany. 
Now the Broughtons have always been well- 
known for their free concerts and cheap 
tickets, and general social consciousness, so 
when they heard the kids on their early gigs 
calling them capitalists' and when they saw 
how small the crowds were considering their 
great popularity in Germany they knew 
something was up. And it was. The promot- 
ers were charging exorbitant entry prices. 
When Edgar realised this, he declared the 
rest of the tour free concerts, which didn't 
endear him to the promoters, the MAM 
agency. At the last gig in Hamburg, they tried 
to impound the group s. equipment to pay for 
what they said were debts, and pulled in a 
troop of "assistants" to effect this. 

They didn't succeed but the night ended in 
a long and crqzy chase up and down Ham- 
burg's Reeperbahn. By and large the band 
enjoyed ail the fun and games. They're not 
too short on fist power themselves, but the 
odds were unreasonably stacked against 
them, so they decided that blind heroics were 
not the order of the day. 

The general bad feeling generated by the 
events on this tour meant that the band were 
unable to return to Germany for nearly two 
and a half years. But when they did, they 
were knocked out to find that they had not 
been forgotten and were packing them in at 
every venue they played. In Hamburg in'tohat 
looked like a monster version of London s old 
Arts Lab, the kind of place the band revel in, 
the kids went wild Really wild. And in Ger- 
many that is a serious affair. This time they 
were one member larger than before, original 
member, Victor Unitf joint lead guitarist with'; 
Edgar, having returned to the fold in the 
interim after stints with the Pretty Things and 
other such notables. Along with Edgar, Steve 
Broughton on drums, and Art Grant on bass, 
Victor pumped his lunatic orgies of electric 
tinglings into the aggressive, demanding 



audience. 

In fact what they want more than anything 
is a response, a real involvement on the part 
of those for whom they play. If it doesn't 
come they get wilder and wilder, crazier and 
crazier. You wonder how anyone can actually 
contain as much liquid as the Broughton 
brothers sweat out in a one and a half hour 
show. 

They remain the people's band above all. 
They are accessible, communicable, and 
concerned. And for them, the money, hit 
records, and the usual fare of the pop scene, 
are of minor importance. Whatever they get 
out of their position as rock performers, 
materially or otherwise, they want to give 
back Already, on very limited resources, they 
have begun to organise, just outside London, 
a communal arts centre, which will serve 
both as a practise and recording place for the 
band, as well as a place where anyone with 
serious creative intent can go to organise 
their scene. 

One of the greatest qualities required by 
intelligent and sensitive performers today is 
resilience. The pressures on successful musi- 
cians are constant, for they are ever in the 
public eye And one quality this band will 
never be short of is durability. 

And on this German tour they needed to 
call upon this quality as much as ever. There 
was constant trouble with the equipment 
truck, and the Landrover which had been 
brought over to carry the band about. But 
they bore it all well, with few complaints and 
what troubled the brawny, charismatic Edgar 
far more than any physical discomfort was 
the fact that not all the audiences would work 
to get themselves off. 

□ □ □ 

The tragedy of many rock audiences is that 
they pay their money and then expect, the 
band to do it all. They seem' incapable of 
releasing their psyches from their inhibitions. 
However, it must be firmly stated, the more 
mediocre receptions were the rareties, and 
Hamburg and Heidefburg in particular, both 
gave powerful evidence to contradict the 
views of any of the music critics who believe 
that Edgar and his mighty men are on the 
wane. 

Each night a hall full of furry sweaty little 
figures screeched and stamped themselves 
into lunatic oblivion as they roared along to 
the Broughtons anthem Out Demons Out' . it 
was a sight to scare the living daylights out of 
any avid satanist. 

Edgar Broughton, who has been dubbed 
the great rock anti-star of our time, is a man 
for all seasons and climes, and though 
popular recognition in the form of chart suc- 
cess may still elude him (little though he 
cares!)' there can be little doubt that his (and 
his worthy band's) energy and resolve will 
keep him going when so many of the lesser 
but more commercial stars which shine today 
have long since burnt themselves out. 


Broughton 
battles on 

words and pictures: Mick Rock 



H i, 

The Pack 
Of Love 
Know", 
Ever Leave Me 
Say", "Be My 
"River Deep 


I EVERYONE1 Just 
take this list of 
goodies, "Leader Of 
"Chapel 
Maybe ! 

Don't 
People 
Baby", 
Mountain 
High", I Can Hear Music”, 
"The Look Of Love", "Do 
Wah Giddy", "Do Do Ron 
Ron", "And Then He Kissed 
Me", and "Hanky Panky". 

That's some list and what 
they have in common is; 
they were all written by a 
lovely blonde lady called 
Ellie Greenwhich. 

Currently in the States she 
has twenty songs on compi- 
lation albums doing the 
rounds and if you want sale 
figures up to this year of 73 
then read, of those single 
records that went Top 20, 
over 1 1 million were sold, of 
those that went Top 60,' 
over 9 million and that 
makes 20 million records 
purely on American chart 
positions of 1 to 60, without 
the UK and Europe. 


□ □ □ 


Now Phil Spector moved 
in on songs like "River Deep 
Mountain High," with a 
sparkling arrangement for 
the fiery, torrid attack of Ike 
& Tina Turner. Spector did 
marvels in the background 
for "Do Do Ron Ron", "Be 
My Baby" plus "And Then 
He Kissed Me" and of 
course many , more. Spector 
we remember, but what of 
the girl who wrote the 
songs, the girl who has 
given countless artists mil- 
lion sellers, isn't it about 
time she stepped out of the 
shadows? 

"Let It Be Written, Let it 
Be Sung" says the extreme- 
ly attractive blonde 32-year 
old ("call me 30") for she's 
coming to the pop scene in 
person. Those words form 
the title of an album, Ellie s. 
The songs on the disc are 
hers. Many of them were 
listed earlier in this article 

it wasn't as easy as it may 
sound. I mean when you 
hear some of the songs your 
head is already full of 
another version. 

□ □ □ 

"1 think what I did was to 
capture the kind of emo- 
tional entanglements you go 
through when in ones 
teens. My songs were at 
times unashamedly soap 
operas. They were short 
stories, little dramas, like 
Leader Of The Pack', 

"On the Shangri-Las disc 
we went out to capture the 
excitement of the time. 
People were into motor- 
cycles, the noise of the revs 
and girls went for the guys 
in their leather gear as they 
roared down the roads at 
incredible speed, 

"You know often on these 
discs I did the demo. I wrote 
the song and then recorded 
it myself. I then took it to 
someone and played it to 
them. At one time in the 
mid-Sixties everything I 
seemed to do turned to re- 


cord gold, it was something 
I suppose few go through, 
the constant exhilaration of 
records zooming up charts 
new stars hitting the scene 
with hits, big ones. Just 
crazy, that,s the way it was. 

"Actually at one time I did 
make a couple of hits with a 
group called the Raindrops. 

1 was the group. I laid down 
the piano, drums and we 
dubbed six times and then l 
was the group! Someone 
said get out and play some 
live gigs. I did a few and 
took my sister and friend to 
give the sense of a group, in 
those days of course one 
mimed to hit records, just as 
well! 

□ □ □ 

"You ask about my reac- 
tions to songs IVe had re- 
corded well there's also a 
story in my production side 
of life The recording world 
is very male orientated. They 
are not used in the studios to 
a woman and one who gives 
orders. I had to prove that I 


could cope, maybe more 
than a guy would have to. 

"All through this of course 
J had to play roles. I mean 
Cm one thing to get what l 
want with one group and 
another with a different set 
of people. 

0 □ □ 

"The thing I'm sorting out 
now is who Elite Greenwich 
is. I'm going to write a book, 

1 think, called What Is An 
Elfie Greenwich? 

"At the moment I'm get- 
ting together quite a few 
new songs and one day flf 
burst forth, though even the 
thought of a live show is 
quite something. I mean 
give me a studio and I'm at 
home!' 1 

Do you know Ellie Green- 
wich could just hit the scene f 
with a gaiety and sparkle it 
needs? First though go and 
listen to her versions of her 
songs and you'll know for 
once she's talking sense 
when she says, "Our tunes 
made it.” 




30 



GENESIS AND 
RON GEESIN 

by Andy Harris 

THE COMCERT was held at the Dome 
in Brighton on the 1 5th of October. It 
was sold out and tickets were ex- 
pensive due (as 1 was told by Mike 
Rutherford: bass) to cost of new stage 
act, The poster and record package 
for 35p was also expensive, but for 
Genesis fans — worthwhile, 

Ron Geesin opened up. His act is 
comical, with chairs on the grand 
piano, his Welsh jokes, his two- 
stringed banjo, but it was too indul- 
gent. 

Genesis started' with J Watcher Of 
The Skies ', and then began to go 
through the excellent tracks of their 
new album. The new stage-act is 
greatly improved with slide projec- 
tions, and they have still maintained 
the aura of mystery in the form of 
Peter Gabriel's costumes and acting 
Steve Hackett has changed for the 
better — he's not such an introvert; 
and one can hear more of his excel- 
lent guitar work. Mike Rutherford and 
his double-necked Gibson also proved 
a showstopper. 

All the group participate a great 
deal, but I often feel the need for 
short solos from Steve and Phil Col- 
lins. Centering the act on Peter is 
often too much, and more of the 
group should participate. 

The music is excellent, and the 
stage show needs just a little to make 
it perfect. Music combines with spi- 
ritual feelings from Peter's acting to 
provide a most satisfying concert, 
Genesis are musically a mixture of 
Yes with music hall theatricals But 
are so original I find it hard to classify 
them further. 


NME is the music paper to read in 74. Every 
week it carries the widest brightest reporting 
in the business. Big names. Big exclusives 
Albums and singles coverage. The nationals 
comprehensive guide to the best of pop and 
rock in live performance. And much, much 
more. Get your copy every Thursday. 8p 



THEONETHEY WARNED 
YOU AGAINST 


ROXY MUSIC 

by Sue Wray 

THE RGXETTES were certainly out in 
force on Saturday night when Roxy 
Music played the Liverpool Empire. 
Andy Mackay-type hairstyles 
(complete with coloured streaks), 
silver boots and a glimpse of a pink 
satin suit in the foyer all added to a 
tremendous atmosphere which was 
climaxed by the appearance of 
fnessrs Ferry, Mackay, Jobson, 
Manzanera, Thompson and Mafda 
onstage 

Roxy opened their set with their 
new single ’Street Life which pro- 
mises to be as great a success as its 
forerunners 'Virginia Plain’ and 
Pyjama rama", and by interspercing 
their repertoire with numbers from 
"Roxy 1 ", "For Your Pleasure ' and 
introducing several new numbers 
from their forthcoming "'Stranded" 
album; how could they fail to please? 


Dressed in white tuxedo, black 
trousers and red cummerbund Bryan 
Ferry pirouetted around the stage like 
a youthfuf Bogart showing himself to 
be even more polished and profes- 
sional than ever. In numbers such as 
"Psalm"' a devotion of peace' (to 
quote Bryan Ferry) which worked re- 
markably well, and '"Mother of 
Pearl 1 ' (an Andy Mackay composition) 
Eddie Jobson proved that he has 
more than compensated for the de- 
parture of Brian Eno in July. 

Combined with the many talents of 
Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera; Sal 
Maida and the lovable Paul (Thun- 
dersticks) Thompson, Roxy left the 
crowd Stamping and cheering for an 
encore which was doubly satisfying in 
the shape of 'Do The Strand' 1 and 
Remake- Remodel' ' , 

After their departure I spent 5 
minutes trying to climb down from 
the back of my seat (where I had 
been lodged for the past 75 minutes), 
exhausted but more than delighted: 

Supporting Roxy for the night was 
Leo Sayer who acted as a marvellous 
apertif for the Roxy set. What more 
can be said — a great time was had 
by a II I 


SKID ROW 

by John McEntee 

THE NATIONAL STADIUM is not the 
most opulent looking building but it 
is the place where most of the good 
concerts happen; like last Wednesday 
when I travelled by bus to see the 
proverbial pheonlx rising from the 
ashes, in this case Skid Row, 

The only survivor from that group 
is Brendan Brush" Sheils who is 
probably Irelands foremost bass 
player, Eamoti Gibney, the lead 
vocalist is an ex-member of Alice 
John Wilson and Eddie Deans com- 
pletes the foursome. 

Angel gave a good warm up and 
we were then treated to a blind 
busker from Dublin who did a 
number or two. After the obligatory 
wait the group were announced and 
John Wilson took up his position at 
the kit and started to be3t the skin 
out of his drums, then the rest of the 
lads came one. 'Brush 1 plugged in his 
bass and started to leap across the 
stage, the band kicked into action 
and the whole thing seemed to fall 
into place. 

Skid Row have one or two rusty 
patches which they may have to iron 
but but Gibney is .a fine vocalist and 
Deane played some outstanding 
bottleneck. Brush Sheils is the driving 
force behind Skid Row, he provides a 
very good visual front backed up by 
some fine bass work. He did a great 
harp piece getting the crowd to give 
him a rhythm, he also did a fine 
country song. 

It was a good night but one thing 
bothers me how come everyone 
waited till the encores to get up and 
boogie? 


The GUY symbol 
indicates a highly 
recommended album 


BIAST'S 
MONTHLY ROAR 





ROXY'S 

BEST 

EVER 


ROXY MUSIC: Stranded 
(Island £2.30) Maybe a subtle 
weirdness in the music is what 
makes this Roxy Music's best 
album to date. There has been a 
steady improvement since the 
debut elpee and the promise 
shown on that first and continued 
on the second has almost been 
totally fulfilled on this third. 

There are one or two areas in 
which perhaps Roxy have room 
for improvement, there is a ten- 
dency for a certain "sameness" 
to affect successive numbers, 
particularly on the lower tempo 
pieces, but on the whole the 
standard of entertainment — for 
this is closely allied to Roxy's 
music — is high. 

The most rabid Roxy fans 
(c'mon stand up and let me be 
counted among them) will love it 
and those as yet unconverted will 
join the rank of the true be- 
lievers. 

Bryan Ferry again takes 
most of the composer credits, 
being responsible for six numb- 
ers on his own and co-operating 
on the remaining two. Phil Man- 
zanera puts pen to paper for 
"Amazona" and Andy Mackay 
helps out on "A Song For 
Europe". 

The opening track, "Street Of 
Life", is not only the hit single 
but a close-sounding relative of 
"Loving You Is Sweeter Than 
Ever". Ferry's clipped vocals are 
his trademark and put the Roxy 
Music stamp on all the band's 
songs, this being a typical up- 
tempo Roxy bit. It sets the pat- 
tern for what is to follow. The 
questions about "Just Like You" 
are: is he gonna break into tears? 
Will he get through the song 
without weeping? Is not Manza- 
nera's guitar stylishly evocative? 
And the answers are: not quite, 
yes and yes. 

The involved backing, includ- 
ing synthesiser, makes "Ama- 
zona" what it is and there's no 
doubt that the added ingredient 
of the London Welsh Male Choir 
add greatly to the dramatic 


appeal of the beautiful "Psalm". 
New boy Eddie Jobson's violin 
and synthesiser add to the effect 
of the latter and it's not until the 
end that you realise how much 
Mackay has contributed to it. "A 
Song For Europe" is at times 
almost classical and at others a 
rocker, Johnny Gustafson's bass 
saying rather a lot and Mackay's 
sax leading away on a nice cross 
melody. And what about those 
Frog lyrics! 

Perhaps "Mother Of Pearl" 
and "Sunset" aren't immediately 
too strong, but give them a few 
listens and you'll be able to pick 
out little touches of ingenuity in 
the background, even after a. 
crammed Dionne Warwick re- 
ception followed by a visit to 
New Zealand House. Don't try to 
work it out, just bear with me. 
RG 



V Smokey; Smokey 

I Robinson (Tamla 

r Motown £2.14) 

Vice-President 
(of the record com- 
* Robinson is 

.^I^Hone of those soulful 
singers who've emerged from their 
past as near-geniuses. Curtis Mayfield 
and Stevie Wonder spring to mind. 
We have to take them as more than 
simply great performers nowadays. 

Smokey Robinson has come from 
the Miracles and on his first solo 
album he shows that he is a truly 
superb singer who has the musical 
taste and wit to do material which is 
well suited to his high-pitched and 
haunting voice. "Holly" and "Will 
You Love Me Tomorrow" are two 
songs which show most clearly just 
how controlled and yet heartfelt a 
singer he is. 

A great album from somebody we 
must now consider as one of the best 
black solo vocalists around. NT 


SANTANA: Wel- 

come (CBS £2.45) 

Carlos has discover- 
ed the same guru as 
John McLaughlin 
and it's certainly 
made him friendly, 
as the album title shows. But whereas 
John kept his skill but lost his inspi- 
ration with the onset of enlighten- 
ment, Santana seems to have kept 
both. 

The argument is whether this is as 
good as "Caravanserai", I think it's 
better, some think it's slightly worse 
but it’s undoubtedly at the same high 
level of quality and a worthy recipient 
of the Guy award for excellence. 

I presume "Yours Is The Light" 
has something to do with his religion 
but an old agnostic like me finds it 
great to listen to. "Going Home" is 
another of those "Caravanserai style 
tracks where a contrived beginning 
leads you gently by the hand into a 
maze of superb guitar playing in a 
fine background sound. 

Santana himself is more held back 
than before, exactly the reverse of 
McLaughlin s development, and he 
allows the other musicians to come 
forwards more, including McLaughlin 
on "Flame-sky". A very worthwhile 
buy. NT 

DAVID ESSEX: Rock On (CBS 
£2.17) A very interesting first album 
from Mr Essex. Starting with what I 
consider a poor imitation of Leon 


Russell's "Tightrope" under the 
name "Lamplight" the album steadi- 
ly improves through the voguish 50 s 
version of "Turn Me Loose" to a 
nicely romantic "On And On". That 
single is naturally included but don't 
be put off "Ocean Girl" starts side 
two in calypso style complete with 
waves on shore. 

Seven of the eleven tracks are 
written by the lad imself. but the 
arrangements and production by Jeff 
Wayne puts the seal of excellence on 
this package. I wonder if D. Essex is 
related to Susan Hampshire — or 
even Clark Kent? DW 


FOUR TOPS: Four Tops Story 
1964-72 (Tamla Motown £3.10) 

You'd have to be some sort of Four 
Tops fan to sit through all four sides 
of this double album at one sitting 
and even then you would be bound 
to notice something of a sameness 
about many of the tracks. Perhaps if 
the tracks had been issued in a two- 
part series it would have attracted 
greater sales, especially from those 
people who like their Tops in small 
doses. 

The tracks range from the very 
early "Baby I Need Your Loving" and 
"I Can't Help Myself" with their 
typical early sixties Tamla sound to 
the comparatively recent "Macarthur 
Park" and "Nature Planned It" 
which are representative of a more 
modern trend in music. RG 






If you think mail order is 
just for Mum, you can give 
yourself a nice surprise by 
sending for the latest 
Brian Mills catalogue. 
FREEIAll these zippy new 
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price offers. You’ll hear 
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38 


continued from page 3 7 



fr QUICKSILVER 

i MESSENGER 

f SERVICE: Antho- 

logy (Capitol 

s £2.14) Quicksilver 

* was one of those 

underground type 
American bands that rose in the late 
sixties and enjoyed a few years of 
comparative popularity. mainly 
among musicians and groovy people, 
before sinking again. For those 
people and for all of you who missed 
them first time round, this is the 
double album for you. 

The contents range from “Pride Of 
Man" and “The Fool" from the first 
album in 1967 to “Hope" and “I 
Found Love" from the seventh in 
1971. In addition there is Nicky 
Hopkins' stay from 1969*70 during 
which they recorded one of their best 
numbers, “Edward, The Mad Shirt 
Grinder" featuring nice Hopkins/ lead 
guitarist John Cipollina interplay. 
With a lot of the rubbish that is about 
today getting so much attention, this 
collection could show the light. RG 



f At The 

f Rainbow (Polydor 

! \m^Wm £2 29 ) earth 

s fljysj AND FIRE: Atlan- 

| (Polydor £2.15) 

^^^BTwo Dutch groups 
whose approach is quite different but 
whose net result is pleasantly similar 
— the listener enjoys sitting and 
listening for a change rather than 
jumping about. Focus of course need 
no introduction and it only remains to 
be said that this “live" album in- 
cludes “Hocus Pocus", “Sylvia" and 
“Eruption". It is also excellent. 

Earth and Fire is a five-piece with a 
girl singer who has a good range. The 
musicians, particularly guitarist Chris 
Koerts, know their jobs and turn in an 
emotional performance. The first side 
is sub-divided while the second uses 
standard tracks to continue the sor- 
rowful theme. A group worth listen- 
ing to. RG 


ROLLING STONES: No Stone 
Unturned (Decca £2.15) Hands up 
all those who knew that the Stones 
had a new album out? I see no 
hands, not even those of Masters 
Jagger, Richard, Wyman, Watts and 
Taylor. And why do you think this is? 
Yes, you're right, Decca have done it 
again. 

Once again setting out to prove 
that you can squeeze blood out of a 
Stone, the Thames-side company 
have got together yet another collec- 
tion of obscure and ancient Stones 
tracks and put them together as an 
album. All you need to know about 
this latest attempt to make money 
with a minimum of effort is that 


among the tracks are "Surprise Sur- 
prise", “Long Long While", “Poison 
Ivy", "Money" and "Stoned" and if 
that isn't just about the weakest col- 
lection of pebbles you've heard, what 
is? RG 


DR HOOK & THE MEDICINE 
SHOW: Belly Up (CBS £2.19) 

First, an apology for not mentioning 
their previous album, “Sloppy 
Seconds" which is even better than 
this one. 

When a bunch of hard, solitary 
rough and ready men get together to 
play songs by Shel Silverstein, the 
sick genius of Playboy, then two 
characteristics predominate. First the 
comradely bawdiness of life on the 
road where "Roland the roadie loves 
Gertrude the groupie, but Gertrude 
the groupy loves groups " or their 
blase attitude to personal disaster, as 
on "Penicillin Penny", but most of all 
there's a sort of hard-boiled senti- 
mentalism based around the neces- 
sity for parting, Mother and her 
“Soupbone" and the nice girl back 
home. 

That's the image anyway, and it's 
put across by one of the tightest and 
potentially the funkiest bands I’ve 
ever heard. Although “Seconds" is a 
better record, this one is great too. So 
I suggest you buy them in the order 
they came out. NT 



VARIOUS 
ARTISTS: 

Motown 

Chartbusters Vol. 
8 (Tamla Motown 
, £2.14) One of the 
best of the series 
that has proved a must for Tamla fans 
and a strong pull for discerning liste- 
ners. I'd have got the album anyway 
just for "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" 
and the memories it evokes of a go- 
go girl called Maureen in the Chelsea 
Bird's Nest, but there are other 
reasons for people buying it. 

Stevie Wonder’s 'Superstition'' 
has to rate as one of the funkiest 
numbers of all time and who doesn't 
want to remember “Ben ", “Take Me 
Girl, I'm Ready". "Help Me Make It 
Through The Night" and “You Are 
The Sunshine Of My Life" Sixteen 
tracks in one collection proving that a 
compilation doesn't have to be a 
money-grabbing rip off RG 



EMERSON. LAKE AND PALMER: 
Brain Salad Surgery (Manticore 
£2.40) Bloody sacrilege! To the pits 
with these people! Burn them at the 
stake! "Jerusalem", "Jerusalem", 
the song that all of us sing in the bath 
and even then treat with respect has 
been mutilated, sodded about with 1 
and heathenised by those three per- 


petrators of weird noises. If there’s 
ever a re-make of "The Devils Of 
Loudon" let me suggest EL&P jointly 
playing Oliver Reed's role. 

Apart from that, should this album 
not be titled Ron Grainer and the BBC 
Radiophonic Workshop Play The Best 
Of Dr Who? Come on, let's have you 
staunch ELP defenders, what's it all 
about? Is this a cacophony or are my 
ears mis-tuned? Is it really the theme 
music from "Noddy Meets The Prince 
Of Darkness"? RG 

KIKI DEE: Loving And Free 
(Rocket £2.30) LYNN ANDER- 
SON: Top Of The World (CBS 
£2.17) 

Kiki's name has been around for 
quite some time but somehow she's 
never made it in any way until Elton 
and Bernie came along, one to help 
produce and one to write some of the 
material on this album and naturally 
it shows. As a complete piece the 
album is most pleasant — though 
her single "Amoreuse" is not the 
strongest song. "Loving And Free" is 
nice and smooth, good listening. 
"Lonnie Josie" nostalgic in the 
country style and "Supercool" is 
good John/Taupin work. 

Lynn is one of the top C&W singers 
in the states I am reliably informed by 
the Beast so she must have some- 
thing. As a style of music the yodel- 
ling and yowlings of the pseudo- 
cowboys is bad enough but more 
than a few minutes of the female of 
the species is enough to make me 
wish that the Colt .45 was just a bit 
more efficient. Nice enough for the 
middle-West with similar-sounding 
tracks including "The Night The 
Lights Went Out In Georgia" and 
"Kill Me Softly With His Song" 
Hmm. BC 

_ WET WILLIE: 

Drippin' Wet Live 
(Capricorn £2.17) 

Any band that can 
combine the force of 
J. Geils, the subtlety 
dltfHIHI of Duane Allman 
and the frenzy of Little Richard and 
still add something to the caboodle 
has gotta be a winner. Wet Willie 
don’t just strut, they leap, whipping 
up a storm of high-level rock which 
will keep you outta your chair. 

Leader Jimmy Hall's harp playing 
is reminiscent of Magic Dick's style 
on "That's All Right" and by the time 
the band gets round to the unres- 
trained boogie of "No Good Woman 
Blues" with all the stops out. you’re 
up and boppin’. Jimmy's brother 
Jack lays down the bass pattern for 
lead guitarist Rick Hirsch to work on 
and it's during "Red Hot Chicken" 
that the cooking starts to boil over. 

But Rick shines most during his 
sensitive Allman-type solo on 
"Macon Hambone Blues", a nine 
minutes-plus piece that develops into 
a frenzy of half-spoken Little Richard 
vocals. Drummer Lewis Ross isn't 
exactly idle, thrashing away like a 
dervish and holding things together. 
You need no encouraging to "Shout 
Bamalama" on the final track, by 
which time you should have got it 
together with your chick and be 
heading for a new life in New Zealand 
or some other far flung place, though 
I doubt that even that's remote 
enough to escape the frenetic atten- 
tion of Wet Willie RG 


l 

\ 



GREENSLADE: 
Bedside Manners 
Are Extra (Warner 
£2.1 7) This is the 
| first I've really heard 
! of Greenslade and I 
[ wonder what I’ve 
been missing. The combination of the 
two keyboard men — Dave 
Greenslade and Dave Lawson — is 
excellent. Their crossplay is a joy to 
listen to and as either one or the 
other had a hand in composing all the 
tracks, hand the bouquets around. 

The title track features some sensi- 
tive vocals by Lawson and "Pilgrims 
Progress" has a build-up reminiscent 
of the early Nice. "Drum Folk" on 
side two features drummer Andrew 
McCulloch and influences from his 
days with King Crimson are discern- 
able. You’ll be hearing a lot more 
from these lads, so make sure you 
don't miss this 'un, there's a good 
reader. DW 



TRAFFIC: On The Road (Island 
£3.14) You've really gotta be a con- 
firmed Traffic addict to get a big high 
out of this double album that was 
recorded on a German tour. There are 
only seven tracks and though for fans 
of the wandering minstrels this is a 
good omen; others may find the 1 7 
mins. 35 secs, of "Low Spark Of 
High Heeled Boys" and the 20 mins. 
49 secs, of "Glad" and “Freedom 
Rider" a bit much. 

I can take any amount of the lads’ 
music and found "Light Up Or Leave 
Me Alone" at 10 mins. 30 secs, the 
best track, Steve's intricate guitar 
work and Barry Beckett's keyboard 
playing outstandingly good. Because 
it will appeal mainly to specialists, the 
package won t quite qualify for a 
Guy, but there's no reason at all why 
music lovers shouldn’t give it a spin. 
RG 

CARAVAN: For Girls Who Grow 
Plump In The Night (Deram £2.15) 

A five piece band who've made quite 
a reputation in a quiet way. The 
album features a big picture of a 
beautiful and pregnant girl on the 
cover, although despite the original 
intention, it was deemed necessary to 
have her fully dressed. The girl in 
question is now delivered of a child 
which has gained much publicity for 
the band in the papers. 

This is all wrong. Their name 
should be noised abroad for the fine 
and thoughtful quality of the music 
they make. Classic British electronic 
rock and a delight to listen to. Apart 
from Mike Ratledge's "Backwards" 
all the songs are written by the band 
and I especially like "A Hunting We 
Shall Go" NT 


39 




STRING 

DRIVEN 

THING 


With their first single “It's A 
Game", very nearly a smash hit, the 
band undertake the following dales, 
Newcastle S. E. Northumberland 
Tech. December 19 

Burton Town Hall 20 

Stafford High School 21 

Man chesfer Sion eg round 22 

High Wycombe Nag's Head January 
10 L " TO 

Halifax Clarence’s 12 

London Marquee 14 

Sidcup Marlow Rooms 17 

London Bedford College 18 

Manchester Polytechnic College 19 


RAY CITY 
ROLLERS 

On the strength of a previous hit 
single. Bay City Rollers should create 
enough curiosity at the following 
Scottish gigs. 

Cumnock Town Hall December 24 
Newton Grange New Hall 25 

Inverurie Town Hall 28 

Airdrie Count Down Disco 30 

Dundee Marriott Hall 31 


JOHN 

BALDKY 

John Baldry special guest on the 
Faces tour, has a new single released 
to coincide with this. 

Oxford New Theatre Dceemlrcr 23 
Ed man t on S u nd o w n 24 

FUMBLE 

This band, often compared to 
America's Sha Na Na, provide their 
own brand of entertainment on the 
following dates; 

Torquay Victoria Hotel 



RECK, 

ROGART, 

APPICE 


The band undertake their third 

tour. 

Glasgow Apollo January 8 

Edinburgh Caley 9 

Newcastle City Hall 10 

Manchester Free Trade Hall 11 

Leeds University 12 

Leicester De Mont ford Hall 13 

Wolverhampton Civic Hall 14 

Brighton Dome 16 

Cardiff Ton Rank 17 

Lancaster University 19 

Liverpool Empire 20 

Sheffield City Hall 22 

Birmingham Town Hall 23 

Bristol Colston Hall 24 

Portsmouth Guildhall 25 

London Rainbow 26 (two concerts) 


FANTASTICS 

Typical Black harmony sounds, 
Sheffield Bailey’s December 16-22 

Barnsley Bailey's December 16-22 

Leicester Bailey’s 23-29 

Dunstable California Ballroom 31 


December 

20 

21 

31 

January 2 
4/5 


London Rainbow 
London Marquee 
Hanley Top Rank 
Birmingham Barba re Ha’s 
Pidshury College of Education 8 

St o kc N ort h S la f fs Po I y t ech nic 11 
Bog nor College of Education 12 

Bath University 18 

Swansea College of Education 19 


TEMPEST 

Founder member John Hiseman. 
formerly of Jazz/ Rock band Colli- 
seum. now working as a three-piece. 
New cas tie Poly tee h n ic 1 a u u a iy 11 
G lasgow U n i vers i iy 12 

Keele University 16 

Manchester Stoneground 18 

Coventry College of Education 19 


Live 

scene 


NEW 

SEEKERS 


Continue their round -the-coumrv 
cabaret dates, 

Liverpool Shakespeare Theatre Club 

January 6-12 
Sf o c k ton Fi esta 13-19 

Sheffield Fiesta 20- February 2 

St Agnes Talk of the West 10-16 

Wakefield Theatre Club 17-24 


GLENCOE 

Originating from the Highlands of 
Scotland. Glencoe should pull in 
numerous followers after their highly 
successful supporting role with 
Argent. 

Manchester Stoneground December 

21 

London Marquee January 3 


TOM 

JONES 

Gyrating his way back on to the 
club and cabaret scene Tor the first 
lime in live years. 

Bat Icy Variety Club January 20-26 


THE 
GLITTERMEN 

Appearing without Gary Glitter at. 
CltTtfiorpes Pier Pavilion December 


Conic Vikings 
Barnsley Civic Hall 
Hornsea Floral H;il3 
Raw marsh Leisure Centre 


21 

22 

23 

24 
26 


THE 

ALLMAN 

BROTHERS 

Known for their lengthy sets, and 
as America's No. ] Rock Band, The 
Allman Brothers will play the fol- 
lowing dates as part ol an extended 
European lour. 

Birmingham Odeon January 12 
Manchester Free Trade Hall 14 

Apollo Glasgow 16 

London Rainbow Theatre 18/19 


GILBERT 

O’SULLIVAN 

This will be Gilbert’s first cabaret 
appearance in his career 
Bat icy Variety Club Jan mm 13-19 



TOOTS & THE 
MAYTALS 


With more than 50 hit singles to 
their credit in Jamaica, the band will 
be headlining a mini-package raggac 
tour 

Leeds Cat’s Whiskers December 23 
B i r m i n gh am Loc| rn o 26 

Brislol Ton Rank 28 

London Earn onion Sundown 30 

Gloucester Jamaican Social Club 31 
Derby Tiffany's January 3 

Doncaster Top Rank 6 


CAPARILITY 


BROWN 


A band of six excellent musicians 
with good, close harmony vocals 
and a lousy P A, system. 

Slough Comm unity Centre 

December 21 
Ipswich Baths Hall 22 

Guildford Civic Hall 30 

London Marquee January 4 

Nottingham Boat Club 4 

l urnborough Technical College 12 
Bath University 18 

Aylesbury Friars 19 


KILBERN 
AND THE 
HIGH ROADS 


This hand were chosen to support 
Who on their American lour, after 
doing so success full) on their British 
tour, 

Hemol Hempstead December 21 
Book ham Youth Centre 22 

Aylesbury Friars 29 

Guilford Civic Hall 30 

Southend Zero Six 31 

London Greyhound January 6 

Doncaster Top Rank 
Crewe College o f Education 12 

Erdliigtdn Firebird 14 

London Imperial College 18 

Waltham Forest N.E.L.P. 19 


HAWKWIND 

“The Ridiculous Road .Show Star- 
ring The Silly Hawk wind Brothers'', 
wilt be unveiled on this massive tour, 
Glasgow Apollo December 21 

Edinburgh Empire 22 

Bletchkw King George's Hall 

January 1 

Leicester Dc Mon l ford Hall 
Portsmouth Guild Hall 3 

S o ti ( hend K u rsa a I 5 

Oxford New Theatre 6 

Dunstable Civic Hall 10 

Cl act on T o w n H a 1 1 i 1 

Liverpool Stadium 12 

Norwich St, Andrew's Hall 16 

Cheltenham Town Hall 17 

Derby Kings Hall 18 

Bournemouth Winter Gardens 19 
Guildford Civic Hall 23 

Edmonton Sundown 25 

Wolverhampton Civic Hall 28 

Swansea Rranwyn Theatre 31 

Plymouth Guild Hall February l 
Belfast Whitla Hall r 5 

1 a nc aster University 8 


ROCK N‘N 
ROLL 
REVIVAL 
SHOW 

A chance to polish up the leather 
gear, and rev it up with Billy Fury, 
Marty Wilde and a possible 'sprink- 
ling of Alvin Stardust. 

Barrow Civic Hall February I 

Halifax Civic Theatre 2 

Darlington Civic Theatre 3 

London Lewisham Concert Hall 5 

Grays Civic Hall 

London Battersea Town Hall 8 

Hemet Hempstead Pavilion 9 

Crewe Lancastrian Hall 12 

Loudon Barking Assemble Hall 14 

Chatham Central Halt 15 

Leamington Royal Spa 16 

York Theatre Royal 17 

Manchester Wyibenshawe Forum 18 

Aldershot Princess Theatre 2D 

Southend CMlTs Pavilion 23 

Croydon Fairfield Hall 24 


Mi hough these dates arc correct 
when going to press, we cannot 
guarantee that they will not he 
changed at the last minute. Jl is 
. utw.r s best to ring the box office 
concerned and cheek the details. 



>r 

Wm 

words: Tony Jasper 
pictures: Richard Fitzgerald /Andre 
Csillag 


t lLL HALEY might have 
twitched his head and sent the 
curls falling back in '55 but no 
one then could have envisaged 
in the Seventies an album as 
powerful as "Guadrophenia" from The 
Who, 

The group have now been on the scene 
for ten years without personnel change. 
Among their songs have been “My 
Generation/' 'Tm A Boy". "I Can See For 
Miles And Miles” and 'The Seeker", They 
made one of the all-time great albums in 
the double-record, "Tommy". 

"Quadrophenia" comes in the same 
category, a mighty tour-de-force, essential 
buying, an album running with consistent 
high standard through yet again, four 
sides. Townsend is one of my heroes and t 
went down to his home in Twickenham to 
talk with the group's lead guitarist, 

I talked about The Who being on the 
scene for some time and mentioned the 
interesting fact of Yvonne Elliman on guitar 
with Pete having just recorded The Who's 
first hit, 1 Can’t Explain’, Did he remember 
those days? 

"Course I do. I relate back quite a lot. 
Those were good years and all that! Ten 
years is quite a chunk to remember but they 
seem pretty vivid, A lot of time in fact sees 
nothing happening. . I mean there were 
certain landmarks like "My Generation", a 
song which has remained with us ever 
since. A chunk of this period of time is on 
"Quadrophenia". 


□□□ 


The Who have always been associated 
with current events. 1965 t "My 
Generation”, and running parallel was the 
Mod craze. Some linked "1 Can See For 
Miles And Miles" with the acid craze of 
around 1967. 

"People may have thought that but it 
wasn't in my mind. It's the case of the writer 
being taken for something he didn’t say or 
rather mean. I mean someone said to me 
one day. 'hey man. very groovy, very 
groovy those lyrics, what are you getting 
at?’ Eric Burdon was there at the time and 
in his broad Newcastle accent with firm 
deliberation he said. It's about a guy with 
great eye-sight!' 

"The Seeker" was another song to fall in 










some people's trio of hits from The Who 
and related to a time-phase, it came in 1 970 
and if you remember the lyrics it summed 
up the pop world’s dissatisfaction at not 
finding any answers from Dylan, Timothy 
Leary arid MaharishL Did Pete 
see M japhenia" picking this sense of 
individual search? 

“Not really though there is some 
similarity* It was a song about ego 
involvement involved in spiritual search. It 
wasn’t really a pointer to the future, 
although Jimmy the Mod on 
"Quadrophenia" is engaged in finding out 
who he is*" 

“I have always wanted to be direct in 
lyrics, to say what I was really thinking. If 
I've wanted to talk drugs I have and sex the 
same. I find it much healthier. ” 

Background over in conversation we 
moved directly to "Quadrophenia". 
"Quadrophenia" came from a simple 
source. I saw a way of hitting things which 
were very much part of me head-on. In 
many respects it's very basic life-stuff 
rather than say the fantasy world which was 
Tommy'. I wrote the songs and produced 
it, but it was more than ever a Who effort. 



“Jimmy goes through four stages and 
each of us plays or rather sings him 
through the particular one. 1 went through 
old record material with our past producer 
Kit Lambert and got things together and 
when the rest of the group heard the 
material it wasn't in a stage of say possible 
re-doing. There weren’t any incomplete 
answers like Tommy'. Musically things of 
course had to befilled-in. 

T wrote about forty to fifty songs, one or 
two came from a previous record session 
like 'Love Reign Over Me' when we had 
intended to do an album, one of the 
muddles of 72. Then 1 didn't feel it was 
right but now I took it as a pivot for the rest 
of the album after the first record which 
ends with an imaginary suicide move from 
Jimmy." 

Jimmy is the main character, or come to 
that the only one on the album but he 
appears on disc in different guises. 

"I tried to make Jimmy a human being, as 






□ □□ 


a mod archetype. He has a love for 
scooters, clothes and all the meat and 
potato stuff we share as a group, our 
memories of the Sixties, of Brighton and all 
that. 

"Jimmy is worried about real down to 
earth problems. I mean his things, his 
problems may seem small but they become 
enlarged for him, dramatic and big and 
they turn into a total spiritual one for him. 

"I mean it’s us there in what he goes 
through. { don't think ail that much is 
needed to make him tick because he 
belongs to what has happened* He goes 
and looks around from his later time 
vantage point and tries to see what is left. 

"Everyone can read, everyone can fight 
and goes through a period when they feel a 
tough nut, a lot of people have said morel 
So you see Jimmy is a member of our 
generation and I picked him, the mod 
rather than the rocker because that group 
is more interesting. 


There's something incredibly symbolic 
about it. You get wet and once wet say to 
yourself you might as well enjoy it, why 
bother to complain. Rain isn’t a mystery yet 
it s part of nature. I mean maybe Jimmy is 
really surrendering to God's Love and yet 
he hasn't really got to that stage " 

And will there be a sequel to fell us where 
Jimmy might have gone after 'Love Reign 
Over Me? 1 "No, l don't think so.' 1 

'Quadrophenia' is The Who being more 
ambitious than ever before, encompassing 
in recorded form something of The Who. 
something of ourselves. It’s a great album, 
a land-mark for The Who and ‘ we’ve been 
pretty quiet the last two years." 

Not now, Pete. 


"Jimmy is an archetype in his own way, 
he’s a member of our audience, he's built 
of the same stuff as us. We share his 
emotions, live things out for them. " 

In 'Quadrophenia' Jimmy during his 
reflective look back and his search to find 
out what life is and what makes him tick, 
recoils from many so-called authorities like 
the teacher or the general adult. Where do 
you find some answers? 

"I dunno on the first, I think everyone has 
to find their own answer. I think there is this 
sense of rebellion in many, f think one has 
to go through a great deal, get to 
desperation before the right questions 
become asked. It happens on the album in 
Dr Jimmy* There Jimmy's diverse qualities 
come together thus the tough, the 
abandoned, the romantic, the spiritual all 
clash. You know the tough part tries to win 
over by filling himself with dope, the inner 
struggle goes on all the time. 

"It's 'Love Reign Over Me 1 which 
becomes the song where, if you like, he 
surrenders, gives up the ghost and tackles 
reality. He begins to find out what things 
are about." 

So what Pete, I asked, is this LOVE? 

"Well, it’s like rain falling from the sky. 










pictures: Graham Hughes 


AFTER THE CRUNCH, 'What have I 
done?'. The following morning Towns 
hend supervises repairs. 



Quo ®ffl 

^te§@ 

S o they tore up six 
front rows and 
caused Quo to pay 
out £400 at Liver- 
pool Stadium, but it 
was only a tew Quo fans 
being somewhat over-en- 
thusiastic. The night follow- 
ing at Londori’s Rainbow ex- 
citement was rife and ten- 
sion was high but it was 
good natured. The music 
was too good for the follow- 
ing to bother with playing 
around. 

Quo's concerts are some of 
the best around if you want to 
really enjoy yourself and get 
right into things The foursome 
get deep into the music. They 
work hard, they sweat, grunt, 
yell and scream at the audience 
to get with them, to feel the 
music shooting fight through 
them. 

The audience are something. 
Almost as soon as the first 
thudding guitar notes scream 
their way through the theatre 
the fans are up and about. They 
don't sit, ever. They stand and 
link hands and sway. Those 
who aren't into hand -holding 
hold them aloft and wave, 
clench fists or just simply clap 
When they arrive for a concert 
they seem almost totally devoid 
of colouring. Everything seems 
very dour, there's a kind of de- 
termination on everyone's 
faces, When 1 he fans are 
boogieing to one of those right 
on Quo riffs the sullenness 
goes and the smiles come 
And for the music critic 
squalling deep in his seat 
there's no usual scene. He 
either gets up or he remains 
burrowed in^a hole or he makes 
for the back of the theatre 
Quo look great from the 
back They seem huge and 
larger than life. Apart from 
Francis they pace up and down 
the stage and when the Quo 
men pace they do it threat- 
eningly. 

"Great amt it, M said a gor- 
geous girl beside me that Rain- 
bow night. Obviously she knew 
Music Scene writers are a bit 
special. OK, she's bright 
enough to realise if you tag 
along with this writer, squeeze 





Francis (Wlike) Rossi, Rick Parfiti, Alan Lancaster and John Goughian are 
the Quo. The first three are coming on like the Shadows on the left, John is 
top right, Mike just below him and Rick Parfitt top centre. 


nis hand and give him a few 
deas (which don't materialise) 
ie1l take you to meet the real 
people, the stars. 

1 mean see that sexy strut 
He must make it good." 
Yeah", I muttered. 

Francis Rossi has heard 
>lenty of this chatter. He smiles 
vhen he hears it ' Yeah, well, it 
vould be rather good to see 
ourselves. Maybe one of these 
lays we ll come along and get a 
ilm made of the whole thing, 
hen we can either think, great 1 
I suppose) or crikey 1 and emi- 
grate fast Weil, we wouldn’t do 
he latter unless it did look 
iwfui and then we would have 
o think whythe people came! 

‘ You're right about the au- 
lienee bit though. They’re very 
important. They make it 
lappen. We find this out when 
ve go to the States and have to 
ilay clubs. We suddenly find 
ack of room We can’t get 
joing so easily, We like to let 
aose " 

And what were the numbers 
it the Rainbow? Well, there was 
Paper Plane", "Caroline". 
Big Fat Mama”, "Don't Waste 
Ay Time" and "Roll Over Lay 
)own" Tve been twenty times 
>r more to see 'em", said the 
jirl and 'they get better. I used 
o love 'em when they were 
ilmost nuthin’ a few years 
^ack. Look at them now ” 

Alan talks about future con- 
ert ideas. People say how 


about Wembley or Earl’s Court. 
You have to be very careful 
about those kind of events. 
They can do a Sot of harm if they 
don't go exactly right, remem- 
ber Bowie's? 

"If we do a really big, big 
venue then it has to feel right as 
well. We must want to really do 
It and not get carried away by 
thoughts of something big. 

"I think our being together 
for so long musically and as 
people will help us from making 
any rash moves, you know the 
kind of thing which could 
occur. when you're elated as we 
are with this autumn's single 
and album successes. 

"I mean eleven years is a 
long time for a group and our 
togetherness must really rub off 
in those live gigs and for us it’s 
good to be on the road. 

' Actually when we do appear 
on stage inspite of knowing 
we’ve got this following we do 
have goose-pimples! No kid- 
ding. You feel right cold and 
then the audience picks up our 
riffs and suddenly they're all 
jumping and clapping and feel- 
ing warm and it spreads 1 We get 
into a nice groove and it’s quite 
amazing to look out and see the 
audience!" 

And that’s where we came in, 
those audiences, those live 
concerts . . ..... Hey, where's 
the girl gone I mean she can 
come backstage and meet the 
four and then. 


words: Tony Mitchell 

pictures: Mike Putland/Richard Fitzgerald 




words: Larry O'Boise 
picture: Barry Plummer 


where we weren't supposed to 
be. 

"A car came up and \ thought 
the driver wanted to give us a lift 
so 1 sard no thanks its very 
nice of you old chap.' 

"Then these four guys leaped 
out and proceeded to rob us of 
all our gear. 

One of them had a knife so f 
thought hello I’m not going to 
argue with him.' 

Paul originally planned to re- 
cruit local people for the sessions 
but he was shunned by some 
Nigerians who claimed he had 
gone to Lagos to steal African 
music and ideas. 

I suppose, looked at straight. 
I'm daft to have gone to Nigeria. 
There's all the extra expense 
and the studios and equipment 
aren't as good as they are in 
London. 

"But I wanted to give the re- 
cord extra sparkle by going 
somewhere where there was 
some kind of scene. And I think 
it has worked." 


P AUL McCartney 
has lost nearly half 
his band, "been rob- 
bed, gone down 
with tropical fever , and he 
Is looking happier than ever. 

He is still deeply tanned after 
three weeks spent recording in 
Nigeria and he is talking with 
pride about his new album, 
"Band On The Run" released on 
November 30th (See review 
page 36} 

"We re really chuffed with ft,' 
he said "It s far and away the 
best we've ever done. 

Though- most of the LP was 
recorded in sunny Africa it was 
far from being a lazy, holiday 
kind of recording session. 

First Henry McCullough split 
just before the trip, after a row 
over the way a few notes on one 
of the songs should be played 
Then drummer Denny Seiwetl 
left because he didn t fancy the 
idea of working in Africa 

So Paul and his wife Linda flew 
to Lagos with their three children 
but no band, feeling decidedly 
fed-up. 

Soon after dawn next morning 
Denny Laine flew in to Lagos. 

So with Linda and Denny 1 
had two Wings — luckily that's 
enough to fly with," joked Paul. 

But within a few days they 
were longing to fly home 
First they all became ill with 
some kind of mild tropical fever 
then Paul and Linda were rob- 
bed. 

"We were walking around late 
at night in the residential area 


CROSSWORD 


CLUES ACROSS 

1 Pieman? 

3 Record company 
7 Gallagher's partner 
9 In the Pink 

10 Nash's first name; her last. 

1 1 Heavenly knocker. 

12 Close to it, 

13, John. 

16 Wizzard number. 

19 Boo was this man's best 
friend. 

21 First name of Canadian rock 
star. 

23 Heavy in every sense. 

24 The eye of steel. 

25 Denny. 


CLUES DOWN 

1 Joy bringer. (2 words} 

2 You could get a ticket for it. 

(2 words) 

4 Kefford 

5 Electronic 

6 Group with son of actor father 
9 Mad dog pianist. 

11 Merseybeats’s pinup. 

1 5 Critics' reviews forced 
retirement. 

17 Dutch treat. 

13 Rock group — don't spell It 
wrong! 

21 Brain surgeons. 

22 They said he loved Doris! 


ANSWERS NEXT MONTH 



ANSWERS 
TO LAST 
MONTH'S 
CROSSWORD 



f IVE YOU AND YOUR 
EWSAGENT A HAPPY 
HRISTMAS - PLACE A 
EGULAR ORDER FOR 'MUSK 


til 


SCENE' 
MONTH'S ON S 
JAN 18. 



47 



THE IRISH 
PROBLEM 

I AM AN enraged Nazareth freak from 
Northern Ireland "Ugh, Northern 
Ireland " you think Yes that is the 
reaction I get from a lot of bigoted 
people. The very name of my not 
quite so blessed homeland almost 
strikes terror into the hearts of folk 
who think that my country is a raging 
inferno (good that?) whh bombs 
popping off every day f! But this is a 
completely untrue picture, 1 myself 
have never seen a bomb (apart from 
on the telly!) have never heard a 
shotgun or anything of that nature. 

i wish people would understand 
that Ulster psop!^ are not great two- 
horned beasts who run around with 
machine guns tucked under each 
arm We are perfectly normal human 
beings and in fact it is only just under 
1.5% of the population of Northern 
Ireland who actually cause trouble. 

I think a lot of groups have a 
built-in fear that if they "come across 
the water ' they are putting their fives 
in danger. This is utter nonsense, 
Rory Gallagher played in Belfast and 
not one hair of his head was harmed. 
Also he got one almighty reception 
(from what 1 have heard), from the 
rock-starved youngsters of Belfast 
Nobody kidnapped and held to ran- 
soms Mungo Jerry when they played 
in Portrush, a small town on the north 
coast So come on at! you artists, 
Ulster's waiting for vou 
ALISTAIR WHITE: Coleraine, Ire- 
land, 

ALL THAT'S 
GARY 
DOES NOT 
GLITTER 

1 HOPE this gets published, even if 1 
do live a few thousand miles away I 
am writing this letter to complain 
about the recent Gary Glitter concert 
here in Adelaide The first thing that 
made me angry was that we paid 
$4.10 a ticket (about £2.10) while a 
friend of mine got in just after the 
concert started for 50c (25p) The 
second disappointment was the 
sound — we could hardly hear his 
voice above the guitars (which was 
another thing — he said his voice 
was sore and therefore he only sang 
about seven songs.) 

There was also nothing to say that 
he was the King of Glamour Rock 
— as far as 1 could see he wasn't 
wearing any glitter, and his clothes 
weren t all that stupendous. The final 
thing was rather humourous — he 
bent over and his pants split!! 

MARK O'BRIEN: St Marys, South 
Australia. 

ERROR 

ONE DAY as 1 sat around my front 
room listening to ' Hello' by Status 
Guo and flicking through the pages of 
the October edition of Music Scene. I 
was utterly astonished 'as -my eyes 
beheld an eerie sight, "My monster 
from the slab" appeared in the form 
of a picture of Focus which was 
printed as a mirror image of the ori- 
ginal 


The a on Jan Akkermans can of 
coke can be seen printed the opposite 
way round And if you observe Pierre 
Van Der Linden's or Burt Reiter's hair 
and then flip your eyes across the 
paper to page 14 r their hair can be 
seen as though the wave was combed 
the other way. 

TREVOR HAMILTON, Camckfer- 
guSr Co* Antrim. 

Congre tulations Trevor on spotting 
our October edition s Deliberate 
Mistake, 


BAD SHOT 

J D JUST- LIKE to say that Bryan Ferry 
is gorgeous, and tor you to print that 
terrible pic on the cover of last 
month s Music Scene is unfor- 
giveable. 

As for Gary Bell who took the pic- 
ture. 1 hope yer tnstaroatic jams! 

Apart from that your mag was 
superb, 

Yours disgustedly: Bryan Ferry 
er, I mean, 

BRYAN FERRY FAN: London 

RUDE LETTER 

I WRITE THIS letter as a reply sent to 
the one sent in by Lesley Burton of 
Cobham, Surrey; whether she wants 
one or not. 

My first reaction on reading your 
letter, Miss Burton, was to roll around 
the room in hysterics. After pulling 
my head off. as any normal person 
would do in these circumstances, I 
set about writing this letter, which, to 
all intents and purposes should serve 
as a deterrent to at! budding ELF 
fans. 

ELP splitting to re-form the Nice 
would probably be the best thing to 
happen to the British Music Scene in 
many a year How supposedly intelli- 
gent human beings can sit down to 
listen and enjoy the garbage produc- 
ed by KE and his rarkus lovers, I shall 
never understand. 

I must say that you have a bloody 
nerve to say that Lee Jackson s 
vocals would ruin the beautiful music 
(??) created by Emerson, Lee's sing- 
ing is a damn sight better than Greg 
Lake's, whose vocals and lyrics (i 


must agree with you) are in a class of 
their own. THE WORST 
I'm sorry, HI take that back let s 
give the lad a bu of credit, I reckon 
that he s$ on a par with the American 
version of Quasimodo, the only per- 
son alive today who can curdle milk 
merely by singing two bars of 'Long 
Haired Lover From Liverpool", YesH 
it s Little Toady Osmond, a fictitious 
tape recording created by Richard 
Milhous Nixon to fool the American 
Senate and People. 

Sorry, back to ELP, this isn't a 
knock America letter. If you believe 
that castrating and assaulting (we 
have substituted this word for the one 
origin ahy written in the interests of 
public decency — Ed.) Hammond 
Organs produces beautiful music, I 
pity you. that is if you aren t a 
necrophiliac. 

As for Carl Palmer s drumming (I'm 
sure that is an alias for Gary Glitter) 
well, what can I say Coming from 
where you do Lesley, you must 
realise that Billy Cobham s drumming 
is far superior to Mr Palmer s The 
only way a comparison can be made 
between the two is by playing, for 
example. ' Tank 3t 78 rpm and 
One Word" [from "Birds Of Fire ") 
at 16 rpm. 

The Nice have to be one of the 
greatest bands to emerge from Britain 
and ! wish every success to Lee 
Jackson. Brian Davison Patrick 
Moranlz who return as Refugee. 

That's all for now folks, so long live 
the Giant Hogweed and best of luck 
to Ann Mark and Doublet 
JOHN STARKE: Colchester, 
Essex* 


PREJUDICE 

SEEING P. Ha^elvtHVs letter in the 
November issue 1 must agree that 
you don't seem to mention many 
foreign bands Are you prejudiced or 
something? 

I used to like Pink Floyd, ELP, Yes 
end no end of British bands until I 
discovered Germany's Amon Dual II. 
Xhol, Tangerine Dream, Annexus 
Guam and many more. Being English 
I regret knocking our bands but 


please let's have at least one inter 
view with Amon Duuf 11 
SCROG: Felixstowe, Suffolk, 

A good idea. Please send more letters 
to the editor telling him to send hts 
staff on trips abroad to meet these 
, bands We all need a holiday 


POEM 

AFTER READING the last couple ol 
poems in Music Scene about David 
Bowre I was inspired to dig out this 
one which I wrote during the height 
of the Ztggy Stardust era (circs 
1972). 

I've had Music Scene since it firs 
started and it gets better ever* 
month. (Why doesn't it come ou 
weekly?) 

You have a special magic 
That the others cannot find 
You're a star that will never fade. 
One of the rarest kind 

Androgynous beauty 
Your pale haunting face 
Belongs to another time 
And a different race. 

Yet some don't understand 
Make snide remarks and jeer 
What can you tell them 
The ones who will not hear? 

You're almost a living legend 
With your thoughts among the 
stars 

David I love you very much 
Did you really come from Mars?! 

CANDY a Bowie freak: 

Folkestone, Kent. 



PEN FRIENDS 

AT HOME & ABROAD 

All Ages 

Send S.A.E. for free details 

EUROPEAN 

FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY 
Burnley, Lancs* 

GENUINE LEVIS 

Pre-worn and shrunk, just need 
patches. Send sizes and Cl plus 
25p p & p to: 

M. HANGED (MS) 

6 Well Lane, Rofhwell, 
WORTH A NTS* Money back guar* 


★gift suggestions* 

fn Time for Christmas 

POP STAR FILL COLOUR PHOTO MON EY BOIES 

Choice: Gary Glitter, David C&sady. David Bowie, Dtorny 1 
Osmond, Slade. Photos may be replaced with vtmr own 
photo. Price 75p nr 2 hr ELS 

QUALITY GIFT 

Ne*! Laige 1) i 1 chrome enamef US. Peace Fmus 
Pendant frith Chain. 95p w 3 for £3, 

FULL COLOUR PENDANT WHN CHAIN 

David Cassidy, flod Stewart. [fenny S. Jimmy Osmond, Gary 
Glitter, 3«S. Mart Bofen. 29pw Sfor El. 

POP STAR CLOTH BADGES 

to™ lisle d atove plus tofrie. Slade, Neddy Hotter. 
Bend™ Lives. Che, Eton, Sweet, SSp w 3 lot S5p « 5 for 

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W&S ^ to* All Mo(w CydE. Motw bi* 

Football Clubs. 25p of 3 far Kp. 

SCARVES COp 

trade and esparl enquiries freltome. All orders wofnptty 
despatched. Free pfip. catalogue included with order. 

BR, ROCK BADGES (QepLMSft) 

80 Franche Court Road, 

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